Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday presented a White Paper in the lok Sabha with an objective to show the challenges that the organisation is facing today. It also shows that Indian Railways is “perched on a precipice but is capable of flying off and attaining great heights”.
“The organisation, especially its staff, has inherent strength and I am confident that a clear direction, targeted investments and well-defined priorities can make the organisation grow by leaps and bounds,” Prabhu said in his 66-page White Paper.
Technocrat-turned politician Prabhu’s White Paper on Railways says by 2020, it would make all efforts towards delivering safe and punctual services, increase average speed by 50 per cent and increase loading to 1.5 billion tonnes.
“Indian Railways, like the mythical Phoenix, will rise again to scale new heights. Indian Railways is the lifeline of the nation. It traverses the length and breadth of the country providing the required connectivity and integration for balanced regional development,” he said. At the same time, he pointed that in an earlier era, the Indian Railways have been described as “imperium in imperio”, an empire within an empire.
“The size and scale is gigantic. The United States, China and Russia are the only countries that have longer railway lengths, measured in kilometers. Indian Railways has suffered from considerable under-investment during the last several years.
As a consequence, capacity augmentation has suffered and so has the quality of service delivery. This is a vicious circle which I desire to convert into a virtuous circle by bringing in greater investments which will generate higher revenues and better service delivery,” he said.
This status paper is the first in a series of three documents. The second was the Budget for the year 2015-16 which laid out five year action plan of the Ministry of Railways in bringing about a turnaround. Finally, during this year Indian Railways will bring out a Vision 2030 document which will contain a blueprint of the long term development of Indian Railways.
The White Paper also talks about glorious past, a turbulent present and a bright future for railways. “It is a giant emerging out of a deep slumber. An awake, alive and kicking Indian Railways can lead the country to greater heights of accomplishment.
However, today, it is mired in a state of ennui, a state of cynicism that things cannot change. Its network is congested and finances are not easy to come by. Resources for development and replacement are stressed. It is finding it difficult to even meet its operational expenses. But, the spirit is still alive,” Prabhu said.
Indicating that crutches of support will have to be abandoned, he says Indian Railways will have to generate its own resources for its development. “The next five years should change the face of Indian Railways. Faster trains, modern trains, swanky stations, skilled staff, should be the Railways of tomorrow. IR looks forward to becoming the nation’s carrier and a multi-modal integrator; making travel affordable, happy, convenient and reliable - a world class experience! IR also looks forward to becoming self-sustainable,” Prabhu said.
All directorates of the Rail Ministry had given their inputs to prepare the status of their ongoing projects and pending ones, reasons for delays and solution. While Prabhu has mainly focused on tapping more revenue channels, former Rail Minister Mamata Banerjee had presented a White Paper in December 2009 countering her predecessor lalu Prasad’s claims of the railways turnaround.