Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu has a difficult task to get the railways back on track. The Railway Budget last announced by him, brought a breath of fresh air. It’ll soon be time for a new Budget. Failure is not an option. He must keep innovating, writes RC ACHARYA
Four months from now, Mr Suresh Prabhu will present his second Railway Budget. The Budget he had presented early this year had come as a breath of fresh air. Absent in it were the usual announcements of scores of new trains, new lines, platitudes for various stakeholders and, of course, funny comments which had kept the MPs of the lok Sabha in splits in the past.
After a brief introduction, which included invoking the names of the Prime Minister and Mahatma Gandhi, Mr Prabhu got down to business and said, “Railway facilities had not improved very substantially over the past few decades.” He added, “The fundamental reason for this is the chronic under-investment in the railways, which has led to congestion and over-utilisation.”
He further said, “As a consequence, capacity augmentation suffers, safety is challenged and the quality of service delivery declines, which leads to poor morale, reduced efficiency, sub-optimal freight and passenger traffic and fewer financial resources. This again feeds the vicious cycle of under investment.” He also said that this cycle must be put to an end.
Pulling out all stops, Mr Prabhu proposed to invest over Rs43,000 crore for network expansion and other amenities in 2015-2016, as against Rs26,600 crore in the previous year; a jump of over 65 per cent.
Capacity augmentation is the newmantra for Mr Prabhu. There is an urgent need to de-congest and move trains at a higher speed, for some of the busiest rail corridors. To achieve this, Mr Prabhu hopes to commission not less than 2,500 km of new track this year itself — a rather tall order, if land acquisition is involved.
Mr Prabhu has identified 77 projects, which involve new line and gauge conversion, to be undertaken in 24 high density corridors. Of these, 28 projects have already got in-principle approval, for which tenders have been invited.
Capacity augmentation will take place by doubling, tripling and even quadrupling of tracks in some of the most saturated sections of the golden quadrilateral: Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Howrah, Delhi-Chennai, and Howrah-Chennai.
The conversion of railway line from metre-gauge to broad-gauge, is also of strategic importance, especially for the North-East region, as it still has a number of metre-gauge sections. This will provide alternative routes for moving freight, which had over the years slowed down to an average speed of 25 kmph (and the resultant was a fast losing business to the road sector).
An ambitious target of commissioning nearly seven kilometres of track per day in the current year is expected to keep the contractors and railway engineers on their toes.
October 31 will be a red-letter day for the Konkan Railway, as a Rs11,000 core project for doubling and electrification will be inaugurated. Work began on this 740 km-long line in 1990 and was completed in 1998, but it remained a single-line route not only due to the lack of funds but also due to the lack of adequate political will.
In a bold move, Mr Prabhu now plans to take a quantum leap in its throughput capacity. This project will enable running of Electrical Multiple Unit rakes for suburban services near major metros like Udupi, Goa, Karwar, Mangalore etc, spurring growth of some of these tier II cities.
A significant increase in freight throughput and improved punctuality of passenger trains plying on this unique alignment, linking Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala, shall see the Konkan Railway play a significant role in economic growth of the country’s west coast.
However, the task of modification/addition of nearly 2,000 bridges, 91 tunnels and scores of yards, to accommodate the second track will be a formidable one, though simultaneous execution on various sections had been the norm 25 years ago.
The original route with non-existent approach roads took eight years to complete, but with superior technology, which includes mechanised rack laying, this can be done in five years. The availability of lIC’s vast cash kitty to Indian Railways will ensure that the work does not get starved due to lack of funds.
The Dedicated Freight Corridor, a Rs82,000 crore project, which was initiated a decade back, has also been fast-tracked, with tenders for Rs17,000 crore of work expected to be finalised soon.
This can prove to be a game-changer for the movement of freight in both the 1,840 km ludhiana-Dankuni eastern corridor and the 1,500 km Delhi-Mumbai western corridor, ushering in an era of fast and reliable freight service.
Undoubtedly, Mr Prabhu has an unenviable task on hand, which is, getting Indian Railways back on track. The largest Government undertaking has been at the receiving end of populist agenda of political heavy-weights of various hues, who have lorded over it for the last two decades. Now, failure is not an option. Mr Prabhu needs everyone’s best wishes.
(The writer is a former Member, Railway Board)