S Railway earns Rs 14.85 cr from sale of 'Rail Neer' in last 3 months

Kannur: Southern Railway has earned Rs 14.85 crore from the sale of 'Rail Neer' packaged drinking water in the last three months.

A total of 99 lakh one-litre Rail Neer bottles were sold during this period. Sales at railway stations accounted for 59 lakh bottles, while 40 lakh bottles were sold on 630 train services operated by Southern Railway.

The water bottle is priced at Rs 15 per litre. Data shows that the Railway earns Rs 65,000 daily from water sales.

The first Rail Neer production plant was established in 2003 under the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). Currently, there are 14 plants across the country producing 18.40 lakh bottles of water daily. Six of these plants are under Southern Railway, including one at Parassala capable of producing 72,000 bottles of water per day. The Chennai plant can produce 1.8 lakh bottles of water daily.

Interestingly, the cost of a 1-litre bottle is included in Vande Bharat and Shatabdi train tickets. Vande Bharat passengers consume over 4,500 bottles daily.

Water procurement: A costly affair

Procuring water is an expensive affair for the Railway, with significant expenditure incurred in filling trains at water filling stations. The new rate revision by the Water Authority in 2023 have increased costs for the Railway by Rs 14.10 per 1000 litres of water. Most filling stations from Mangaluru to Nagercoil rely on the Water Authority for supply.

The Railway requires 7 to 10 lakh litres of water daily for operations at stations including Kannur, Palakkad, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochuveli, and Ernakulam, amounting to an annual cost of up to Rs 1.5 crore.