Shiban Khaibri
The maiden budget, which appears as pragmatic and visionary, aimed at providing an “incredible train for incredible India” by the Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu is in the air of fructification of the objective of the Prime Minister to transform the Indian Rail into an engine of economic growth. There has been not only bold initiative in its presentation but a slight departure from the morbidity of making slew of promises, often placating the home state of the Railway Minister or the region as the coalition partner, announcing a row of projects pleasing the ears momentarily, later never to be completed. That is why no new trains have been announced but the ones in operation attempted to undergo some badly needed changes to comfort the traveler. A front on which the “grand combined opposition” of heterogeneous political ideologies but one on taking on Modi at the drop of the hat, has been made ineffective by no hike , even the much needed marginal one, in the passenger fare, by the Railway Minister. He had no threat lurking in the wake of doing so like the assertive Dinesh Trivedi who dared do the same in the slightest manner but not without losing his job and later all that reversed which he ventured to try to make some turnaround possible. Not only that, when Trivedi was made to march out at the behest of his coalition leader in the UPA2, the report of Dr. Kakodar committee was put in cold storage because it was constituted by Trivedi himself.
Has the time come, now, to bid adieu to populist measures, freebies, largesse, subsidies, concessions and the like to make a turnaround in the general economic health of the country, even if it means costing power in the next elections? A new thinking at least on economic front was long overdue, no wonder Narindra Modi has dared to bell the cat irrespective of the prospective shape of the electoral Balance Sheet. Look at the ruckus generated on Land Acquisition Bill, the tears shed on the “interests” of the farmers speak in themselves which ones are the real tears, the sincere tears. The thrust, however, has been to take the optimum advantage of the existing railway assets rather than acquiring the new ones which speaks of the target of increasing the passenger traffic from 21 million to 30 million on daily basis. Likewise, augmentation of the suburban network in Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai is to take place. Deaths taking place on or near level crossings have found the RM attentive to the problem and provision of elimination of nearly 3500 such crossings finds prominent place in the budget. It is in the wake of the Kakodar panel recommendations that elimination of level crossings, upgrading of signaling systems and installation of protection warning system have been considered worth implementation. The thrust has been on speed, safety, security and sustainability spread over a span of five years to go through a “transformation” and in the words of Prabhu, “We have to make Indian Railways a benchmark organization in safety, security and infrastructure.”
On the safety front, the RM has spoken about train collision avoidance system to be introduced on select routes and train speed to be increased from the average between 110 -130 to 160 -200 kmph. This will make travel between Delhi Mumbai and Delhi Kolkata just an overnight journey. For dialing security complaints 24×7 help lines 138 and 182 operational from March 1 shall go a long way in addressing security related issues. Surveillance cameras on select women compartments and an amount of Rs.1000 crore from Nirbhai fund are proposed on women’s safety. Likewise more lower berths for senior citizens, differently – abled and the like shall be made available. Those who travel unreserved can now get tickets in just 5 minutes and to discourage touts and unauthorized agents, tickets could be purchased 4 months in advance as against two at present. The RM has set four goals to be achieved viz; a) to boost customer experience, b) to ensure every one’s safety, c) to modernize the Railways and d) to attain financial sustainability. The proposals, therefore, are more AC three tier coaches, ordering choicest food during travel, jerk- free travel with introduction of train sets, mobile charging facilities in almost all coaches, entertainment on Shatabidi trains, cleaner stations and with escalators and lifts, 650 more toilets at stations, 17000 bio toilets in trains, better and cleaner bed rolls and the like.
Why has Indian Railways been ailing and why a major focus to address the main problems afflicting the biggest employment provider in the country not having been given is all heaped up in treating Railways casually and an instrument of political fertile field rather than an instrument of growth. Operational cost and revenues have found their distances widening so much so that profits even on the basis of window dressing accounting measures and political ploys like “Garib Rath” etc giving indications that it was more of a charitable institution rather than a financial entity where the thrust should have been to arrive at the operational breakeven point to make way to earn enough to not only attain self sustaining position but pooling profits earned for structural development and customer convenience. Railways, frankly speaking, had the misfortune of having ministers during the last over a decade which appeared not performing exactly as the job wanted but were put there to keep the coalition partner happy where the affairs ran as per the whims of that coalition partner. Laloo Yadav’s “profits” were contested by his successor, the present CM of West Bengal to whose surprise, there was enough of window dressing done not only to mislead the country but go in for self bragging, proxy graduating to a faculty member to “teach” MBA students the “secrets” of his “spectacular success”. Lighter veins and puns can be no substitute for professional, sincere and concerted handling of the Railways. During the UPA2 we had as many as 5 ministers, quickly one after the other, to “look after” the most important Railways, hardly getting any time to consolidate and strategize about curing its financial, operational and security health.
This “non political” budget points out to an ambitious investment of Rs. 8.5 lac crore in the next five years on which the opposition has criticized the RM as to where from the funds were to come. However, it is envisaged that the same could be mobilized from multi funding like ADB, Pension Fund, joint ventures and domestic private investments. That FDI could come with its pound of flesh of immediate returns and partnering in operations. That was not possible besides the gestation period in Railways was an average of 5 to 10 years. However, private investment was imperative for the smooth chugging of the railways. Plan outlay stood at Rs. 100011 crore . Revenues from passenger fares and freight charges were pegged at over 50000 crore and Rs. 121000 crore respectively.
Much was expected in the area of making our railway stations which are farthest from international standards, neat clean and free of dirt and darkness. The need to purge the stations of unwanted crowd who outnumber the actual passengers turning stations into squatting, resting, sleeping and eating places for prolonged hours has not found any particular mention not even hiking the rates of the platform tickets to discourage unnecessary entourage. Stations like our important Jammu Tawi present horrible picture of stink, dirt, littering, cat sized rats infesting the filthy tracks , Parking problems, overcrowding and what not. Change of mindset, innovative perceptions, paradigm shift in institutional mechanisms, stopping leakages, eradicating non performance and corruption and the concept of realizing service cost could transform the Indian rail into the engine of growth.
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