Diesel vs electric traction

Line Haul Costs

• The Operational Line Haul Costs for Diesel and Electric Traction are expressed in terms of the Line Haul Costs per 1000 GTKMs of Traffic carried. It has the following components.
• -Costs of Fuel, Stores, etc.
• -Repair, Maintenance and Operating Expenses.
• -Depreciation
• -Interest

Anomalies in Line Haul Costs

• OHE Financing through Budgetary support
• (Applicable 7% Dividend)
• Capital-at-charge (Rs.4359 Crore *) of Electrification retained with CORE.
• Capital-at-charge of Zonal Railway kept low
• (Example-WR/43 Crore, SR/69.9 Crore since 1987, CR/120).
• Interest of full Capital-at-charge Rs.15 per 1000 GTKM
• ROR worked out for 36 years, slightly less than the OHE Codal life of 40 years to avoid Replacement costs getting reflected.
• IRFC Lease Hire Charge apportion to Diesel locos only (Example-ER)
• IRFC Lease Hire charge distributed in proportion of loco holding to the disadvantage of diesel traction where shunting locos also get included.
• * Source : 2001-02 (BE) Figure as per Budget Documents Explanatory Memorandum 2001-02

Line Haul Costs

• Proof of the Pudding is in the Eating !!
• Diesel Line Haul Cost on
• Non-electrified Railways (NE & NF) are significantly lower than that of
• Electrified Railways
• NE 46.48 65% Lower than IR Ave.
• NF 62.10 24% Lower than IR Ave.

Line Haul Costs

• In any case,
• the Average Line Haul Cost
• derived from the High Density Electrified Routes cannot obviously be Extrapolated to justify the Electrification of Low Density Routes.

Procedure for sanction of Electrification Projects

• Each Electrification Project will be justified on ROR which should exceed 14% with the DCF Method.
• In certain specific cases, Electrification will be justified on considerations of Operational flexibility
• Electrification of a single line section (Main Line) will normally not be considered.
• The ONLY Recommendation followed is
• to Do Away with Breakeven,
• due to obvious reasons.