Water was transported to drought hit Latur in Marathwada region through Jaldoot.
The railways has pegged the cost of each trip of the Miraj-Latur water rake Jaldoot at Rs11 lakh, or about 45 paise per litre. As of Thursday, railway officials told dna that the water rake had made a total of 78 trips between the two stations and transported 17.7 crore litres to the parched Latur town. Of these 78 trips, the first nine were made with just 10 wagons and carried 5 lakh litres per trip, while the rest 69 were full 50-wagon rakes, each rake carrying 25 lakh litres.
The cost of transport of water as of Thursday is around Rs 8.5 crore. Smaller issues, such as how to peg the cost of the truncated 10-wagon trips and the loss of water, if any, during loading and unloading, will also have to be looked into, agreed officials.
While officials refused to come on record about the bill issue, they said that by the time the plan ends once monsoon is stronger in Latur region, especially the Manjara dam area on the border of Osamanabad and Beed, the bills will go past Rs10 crore. Responding to a letter from Central Railway written on June 28, the railway board has extended the term of the special accounts mechanism for this water transport till July 31.
Under the special accounts mechanism allowed by the railway board's directorate of traffic commercial (rates), CR is allowed to load the water at Miraj station with the district magistrate (DM) of Sangli — under which Miraj falls — being designated consignor (sender) and DM of Latur as consignee (receiver). The only special case is that instead of railway rules for everybody, which state that the sender has to make the full payment before the journey itself, in this case, payment is done on a "to-pay" basis, which means payment of all the water transported can be done at a later date.
As per the agreement between the railways and the state government, it is the latter which will have to ask the railways to call off the water rake as and when supply from Manjara dam for Latur town gets adequate. The town requires about 5 crore litres per day under normal circumstances. The first water rake carrying five lakh litres had left Miraj for Latur on April 11. The first full 50-wagon rake carrying 25 lakh litres had left for Latur on April 19.
The number game
Total trips of water rake till Thursday: 78
Total water transported till now: 17.7 crore litres
Cost per trip: Rs11 lakh
Total cost as of now: Rs8.5 crore (approx)
Cost of water transport per litre: 45 paise
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