Given that Indian Railways is losing business to the road sector due to its low average speed, capacity augmentation can become a game-changer
Of the 7,000 odd passenger trains that run daily, the Howrah-Amritsar express holds the record for the largest number of halts. With 115 stations, the train takes about 44 hours and 30 minutes to cover 1,922kms. It clocks at an average speed of just over 43kmph, and, therefore, has been relegated to the status of a slow passenger train.
And this is the same story for many other trains too. The slow speed of passenger trains can be attributed to the populist measures of successive Railways Ministers. When MPs, MlAs, rail passenger associations and other assorted self-styled bodies, out to establish their clout with the Minister, demanded additional halts for Rajdhanis and other super-fast trains, the Ministers complied with their demands.
Such haults were sanctioned on an experimental basis by the Minister to gain quick popularity and also to assess the volume of traffic that is to be generated from the intermediate station. In due course, it has to be decided if such a halt should be discontinued or made permanent.
However, due to bureaucratic lethargy, such a review is seldom done. The result is that the halt becomes permanent by default. A whopping 4,840 so-called experimental halts were sanctioned by the Railways Ministry since 2004, all of which were supposed to lapse on September 30, 2014 but unfortunately continued as Mr Sadananda Gowda, the then Minister for Railways, could not muster enough courage to review and axe them.
Resultantly, over the years, the average speeds of trains have plummeted. This has had a far-reaching impact on long-distance passengers. To deal with this sorry state of affairs, Union Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu has proposed that stoppages for trains be considered only on the basis of operational feasibility, commercial justifications and genuine demands not the whims of local netas.
As usual, this year too, trying to make the most of their presence at the Winter Session of Parliament, a stream of MPs made a bee-line at Rail Bhavan, seeking the Railway Minister’s indulgence, to sanction stoppage of mail express trains at wayside stations, to introduce new trains, and to extend the run of some others, so that they reach the stations in their constituency.
At this point, when railways is fast losing business to the road sector because of a low average speed, Mr Prabhu can ill-afford to add new trains, extend the run of existing ones or sanction new halts. The sanction of such demands will further lower the speed of passenger as well as freight trains.
Mr Prabhu’s massive drive to augment the railways’ capacity by doubling, tripling, and even quadrupling it in some existing high-density sections which are already carrying traffic over 150 per cent of their design capacity will take time he has to make things work with the existing infrastructure, to carry increased freight, if and when it materialises.
Also, the railways has found the Public Private Partnership model which was successful for port connectivity projects such as Mundra, Pipavav and Dhamra, where the area of responsibilities had been clearly demarcated and there have been no post-construction disputes. Resultantly, more projects like these are on the anvil.
The JSW group, in 2015, signed an agreement with the Konkan Railway, to build a 34km, Rs771 crore rail link to connect its Jaigarh port on the Konkan coast. This will create a channel for growth of freight business for the railways.
In order to tap the business for parcel transport that is estimated at one lakh crore rupees, Mr Prabhu, aided by his team of whizkids, in consultation with experts in logistics, has fasttracked a policy paper to attract major private players in this lucrative field. To be announced by end of this month, this paper will offer substantial benefits to the private sector to enter into a long term partnership. The private sector will use its limited resources to bring about last mile connectivity while asking Indian Railways will have undertake the major projects for the long haul. This can substantially improve the Government’s bottom line.
(The writer is a former Member, Railway Board)