RAILWAY SAMACHAR

Mamta Ges 'Turant' Railway

Homework From Prime Minister

NEW DELHI : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has, gently, turned the heat on absentee Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, asking her for a status report on the Railways in a fortnight.

Forwarding a note by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on an assessment of the problems at Indian Railways and suggestions for a turnaround, Singh’s attempt seems to be two-fold: one, to prod Banerjee to give time to her Ministry and two, to get things moving in the Railways, so crucial to the country’s double-digit growth ambitions.

The Plan panel’s eight-page note a quick summary of the malaise at the Railways. But since most of this is generally known, the purpose of the note seems more to drive home the urgency to act than to educate Banerjee on Railways problems. Stating that planning at Railways is not guided by a vision, the note calls for fundamental reforms including institutional restructuring.

While an independent commission may be appointed to submit a report just ahead of the next general election on structural reforms, some immediate steps that could be announced in the Budget for the next fiscal include: a minimum 10-15 per cent hike in second class passenger fare, no increase in freight, indexation of fares to increase in fuel costs, bids for diesel and electric locomotive factories by year end, laying unviable lines only if states chip in with 50 per cent share and planning for high-speed passenger train services.

A government official said, “The Prime Minister has requested a discussion with the Rail Minister and Chairman, Railway Board, after the ministry has formulated its views and suggestions on the Plan panel’s note.” But, he fears, the status report that Banerjee prepares will not be without references to the performance of the Railways under Lalu Prasad.

Drawing a parallel with China, the Plan panel said that between 1990 and 2007, Indian Railways added only about 960 km while China added 20,000 km. China plans to add another 40,000 km in the next 10 years while India is currently doing around 250-300 km a year. “There can be no doubt that we should aim at adding 1,000 km a year for the next 10-12 years totaling 10,000 km of additional route length,” it said.

The Plan panel has said that technology modernization has been slow since Railways itself produces much of its rolling stock. “Separating production units from the railways, which the Chinese have done, would have put much more pressure to modernize,” it said. Again, comparing with the Chinese, the note says wagons in India have a capacity to carry 80 tonnes with a tare weight to payload ration of 1:2.7. In China, this is 1:4.

Further, the maximum speed of freight wagons in India is 75 km, being selectively upgraded to 100 km. China’s freight cars henceforth will have a speed of 120 km. Acknowledging that cross-subsidising ordinary passenger traffic heavily by levying high charges on AC I Class and freight cannot be corrected quickly, the Plan panel said a transition is possible over the five years.