Events &
Issues
New Delhi,
22 June 2015
Rail Reform
TRACKING THE AILMENT
By Dhurjati Mukherjee
The
recommendations of the just released report of the Bibek Debroy panel on
Railways couldn’t have been better timed. The nation’s biggest carrier has been
facing financial as also service-related problems. An earlier Interim Report
was placed in the public domain for comments on March 31and the final report
has been prepared based on comments from people. The Report has been focussed
on five parameters: (i) accounting reforms, (ii) unified entry, (iii)
independent regulator, (iv) private entry (v) decentralization. All this obviously leads us to believe
that the exercise undertaken by the committee has been well tracked and the
restructuring exercise should be flagged off immediately.
However, a big
question is whether the report will help improve basic services provided by
the Railways? While efforts are being made, services in most of the trains are
quite poor by any standards and, despite promises by Zonal railway heads,
little has been achieved. In fact, a section of people who travel regularly are
of the opinion that services have been on the decline and that barring some
premier long distance trains, the situation is getting from bad to worse,
despite claims. This apart, flow of unauthorized passengers in the reserved
compartments of long-distance trains is another major problem faced by most of
the Zonal railways, specially in North and Central India.
Adding to
the woes is the catering services offered by the Railways through private
contractors which other than in Rajdhani and Shatabadi trains, are terribly poor
and fail to meet reasonable standards. The food at times is unpalatable but passengers
have no other alternative. Is there a mechanism to check such food served in
trains?
Another
aspect which needs consideration is the way passengers travel in unreserved
compartments on long distance trains. There is no bar on issuing tickets and
people have to sit on floors of these compartments. The toilets are not fit to
be used after say six to eight hours and remain dirty for major part of the
journey time. With the much-touted Swachch
Bharat campaign in place, the question is how much care has been given to
ensure cleanliness of toilets in unreserved coaches where at least 100 people
travel at a given point of time? Further, on what logic does the Railways issue
umpteen number of tickets, denying passengers basic dignified travel?
These
questions go unanswered as apparently Railway officials seek to look at the
bigger picture of ‘swanky stations and bullet trains’. There is of course, the standard
problem of ‘resource constraint’, and this is partly due to fares not being
raised for over a long period, wanton corruption, inefficiency and negligence
etc.
In such a
situation, the Railway Bhavan must seriously consider what needs to be done and
what is best in the prevailing circumstances. The entire administration needs
to be overhauled and some sincerity and dedication inculcated both among
gazetted and non-gazetted staff. In this
connection, the recent move to cut down on gazetted staff, keeping in view the
technological changes that have been brought about in recent times, as
mentioned recently by Member (Staff), and to conduct a HR audit is a good decision
and must be acted upon.
The Government
can definitely cut down on staff expenditure but additional resources are
needed for providing better services to its passengers. This should be given
top priority as also viz track renewal and expansion. In the past decade, India must note that China’s railway network has
expanded at a much faster rate than its, with the neighbour witnessing higher
growth rate.
At this
point, the Government’s decision to introduce bullet trains does not look to be
a viable proposition. The costs involved of running such trains – even in some
specific routes – would obviously be very high and the fare burden would need
to be passed on to the passengers. Further, most of these passengers may not
avail these facilities as costs of air travel would be more or less the same. Thus,
the investment in bullet trains should be instead diverted to track renewal and
expansion, at least for the coming two years, as these are undeniably necessary.
Funds could
also be used to add capacity in the existing network and ramp up speed of
trains to more respectable levels. It is no secret that the speed of almost all
passenger and express trains is among the slowest in the world and this is far more
necessary than spending good money on bullet trains. The Railways own estimates
indicate it immediately needs Rs 800,000 crores for modernization, which indeed
is a massive amount that is no doubt difficult to generate.
The present
panel Report has considered some of problems but tackling all issues obviously
calls for overhauling the zonal railways and simultaneously making more
resources available. One way is to generate own resources through utilization
of unused land, creating lodging accommodation for passengers at big stations,
including setting up executive lounges in the metros stations – a process which
has already started – charging for rest rooms in the big stations, using space
in stations commercial purposes, setting up hotels in tourist centres etc.
Regarding
raising resources, the panel suggested that an investment advisory Committee
be set up comprising experts, investment bankers and representatives of SEBI,
RBI, IDFC and other institutions.
However, to carry
out all this work, a strong administration would be needed and all officials
should be made accountable and penalized for any defalcation of duty. The
corruption in the system has exceeded all limits for which the vigilance wings
of the zonal railways need to be blamed. Moreover, Railway officials are rarely
responsive and prefer to ignore complaints of passengers. There is need to
think whether the vigilance wings of the zonal railways should be headed by
officers from police or para military services with more powers to ensure that
corruption is brought down.
Reports and
suggestions can only become effective if they are implemented with an iron
hand. Therefore, setting up an independent regulator, Railway Regulatory
Authority of India, to fix freight rates, resolve disputes and set up technical
standards has been an important suggestion that needs to be seriously
considered. Also decentralization of powers to General Managers and DRMs, as
proposed in the Report, may help in moving things fast. Possibly realizing the
performance of the private sector at least in some areas in the railways, the
ministry has ruled out outright privatization but there is a grey area of
liberalisation. Clarity and action are awaited. ---INFA
(Copyright, India
News and Feature Alliance)
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