Events & Issues

New Delhi, 18 January 2017

Railway Reform

Professional Approach Necessary

By Dhurjati Mukherjee

With the Railway Budget integrated with the coming General Budget, it remains to be seen what importance the world’s largest carriers would get. There are various aspects of the Railways that need urgent attention but these have not been receiving adequate attention. The very fact that even premier trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto had been running hours late due to fog and other related problems like frequent accidents, derailing etc. testifies to the fact that Railways do not have necessary equipment and expertise to tackle these problems.  

According to sources in the Rail Ministry, it would have the highest plan outlay of around Rs 1.35 lakh crores in the next financial year from Rs 1.21 lakh crores this fiscal. The national transporter plans to seek Rs 60,000 crores from the Finance Ministry as gross budgetary support and another Rs 25,000 crores from LIC as loan while the remaining amount will be raised by Indian Railways Finance Corporation (IRFC) through bonds, internal resources and public-private partnerships. 

Poor finances of the Railways has affected the Railways as it has been stated that over the years there has been no fare increase due to populist policies of political parties. It may be mentioned here that according to official sources, the Railways are reported to have finalized a policy whereby trains and stations may be branded to augment resources without possibly raising passenger fares. Under this policy, a company can buy consolidated media rights for branding the entire train as it will be able to advertise both inside and outside the bogies.

The resource crunch has affected modernization of Railways in all fronts and affected its functioning. While accidents are increasing, track renewal is also a related problem. Even where track renewal is being carried out, there is no proper planning and such renewal results in late running of even super fast trains.       

The most important area is the modernization of coaches such as Linke Hoffman Busch (LHB). This has become all the more necessary after the Kanpur accident and it is understood that the Railways would step up production of LHB coaches.  But, as per a report, it may take three decades to replace Railways entire fleet from ICF to such coaches.

As per the Railways coach production schedule, the production units would make a mere 1253 LHB coaches in 2016-17 whereas around 40,000 coaches are used in passenger and express trains. Only 4000 LHB coaches are presently being used whereas there is need to change the ICF coaches in the next 4-5 years or so. But what is indeed distressing is that the production of ICF coaches is more than the number of fresh LHB coaches pushed into the system.     

It is understood that conventional ICF coaches run for 25 years and costs between Rs 90 lakh and Rs 1.40 crores whereas LHB ones serve around 35 years and cost between Rs 1.8 crores and Rs 2.35 crores. Both the Anil Kakodkar and Sam Pitroda committees had raised objections to continuance of the ICF fleet.

There are reports that the Railways are contemplating of raising passenger fares in the coming budget. The dynamic fares introduced by the Railways are already quite high and further revision of fares may make it unviable as sometimes the fares match those on low-cost airlines. Moreover the fares of AC First Class are already equivalent to air fares. Added to this is the fact that there is very little justification in raising fares in Sleeper Class, where services are quite poor, and where people from the low income groups normally travel. Thus it is difficult to presume where in which classes and in which trains, fares would be increased.      

There have been very little efforts to raise resources by the Railways. Some of the steps which could be taken include leasing stations to private parties, developing and renting and/or leasing Railway plots near stations or building rest rooms and guest houses in metro stations, stations in tourist spots etc. Though some efforts have been initiated, there is need to undertake this work in a time bound and professional manner. These are reportedly under active consideration.      

One may mention here that platform tickets are purchased only in the metro stations. The undersigned, who had worked in Dehra Dun, Lucknow and Varanasi, found that there was no system of purchasing such tickets in these stations even a year ago. Again vendors in stations rarely sell Rail Neer packaged drinking water which needs to be made mandatory as its quality is better and less costly. These and many other steps could help in improving the finances of the Railways.      

The governance of Railways as also of most Government establishments is a vital area that needs to be given special attention. The functioning of most Government officials at stations and, of course, of TTs leave much to be desired. There is need to have a strict evaluation system so that the guilty are punished while those found efficient and honest needs to be rewarded. This would also result in at least curbing corruption in the Railways, which has gone unchecked for years.     

A professional approach has to be inducted in the Railway system. The present Railway Minister is a highly respected and scholarly person but reports indicate that he is too good a person to take strong action against erring high officials. Just penalizing officials at the bottom without touching those at the top cannot help improve the Railway system. The accountability should be more at the top than those in the lower cadres.   

The resources of the Railways should be targeted for urgent and basic requirements where the majority of the passengers travel. Diverting resources to bullet trains is possibly not needed at this juncture. Even providing wi-fi facilities can wait. The urgent necessity is to concentrate on upgradation and maintenance of tracks to increase speed of premier and super trains whose running is slow by global standards and should be steadily increased and also constructing freight corridors. There should be an endeavour to maintain a speed of 120 km per hour.          

Also the causes of late running of trains should be analyzed by a team of experts and remedial steps taken thereof. Politicians and even bureaucrats do not give attention to this aspect as they are accustomed to air travel. It is the common man who suffers. The focus of Railway modernization should not be targeted for the few who travel in AC classes but those who travel by lower classes. 

In this connection, mention may be made of improving sanitation in the lower classes and ensuring cleanliness and adequate water availability. If necessary, a small charge may be levied towards implementing ‘Swacch Bharat’ in super fast trains.     

Innovative reforms are necessary keeping a balance with the finances available and the possibilities of raising additional revenue. Unless there is the extra effort, it would indeed be very difficult to meet the immediate requirements the Railways need for maintenance, upkeep and modernization in a phased manner in the coming few years.---INFA

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