Indian Railways is mulling over a proposal to run about 50 to 60 ‘duplicate’ trains as part of its effort to augment capacity and mop up additional revenue. These duplicate trains will act like ‘shadow’ of an exiting train on congested routes and will run a few minutes after the departure of the original train. These ‘shadow’ trains will run on the route of the original train and will have similar stoppages.
The idea behind such a move is to minimise cancellation of tickets, resulting into financial loss, and double the number of berths available in a train. Sources claimed the proposal, which was under ‘active consideration’ of the department, could see the light of the day “very soon.” This would be in addition to another proposal about adding two extra coaches in the existing trains and long hauling (coupling of goods trains) for augmenting capacity and raising freight revenue.
Sources claimed Indian Railways was looking for ‘options’ to generate revenue for the cash-strapped public transporter, as the idea of tinkering with passenger fare in election year keep giving sleepless night to political bosses of Rail Bhawan. Then Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal had proposed a variable Fuel Adjustment Component (FAC) to passenger fare and that is scheduled to be reviewed in October. Under this arrangement, already in place for freight charges, a portion of the passenger fare would be ‘linked’ to electricity and fuel charges. This FAC would be variable and determined according to fuel cost.
Sources claimed a decision was yet to be taken whether or not to implement the FAC in passenger fare ahead of the elections. “At present level of fuel and electricity charges, passenger fare would go up by at least two or three per cent if FAC is applied,” sources said. Indian Railways also seems to have developed a cold feet on its proposal to set up a Rail Tariff Authority (RTA) to “independently” determine passenger fare and freight charges also seems to have been put on the back burner for a while. Views of other related Ministries had been sought on setting up the RTA and, sources suggest, a decision on this could be delayed.
Meanwhile, the Ministry has firmed up plans to expedite construction of bridges at unmanned level-crossings to prevent accidents and asked State Governments to share the cost. The unmanned level-crossings are responsible for maximum number of consequential train accidents. Currently Indian Railways has 31,254 level-crossings, 40 per cent (12,582) of which are unmanned.
"Railways have decided to progressively eliminate all unmanned level-crossings by constructing road over bridges and under bridges or by manning the accident-prone spots," Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge said at a consultative committee meeting here. He said the bridges can be constructed provided the State Governments or local bodies agree to share 50 per cent cost of the project. He said due to limited availability of resources and funds being distributed over large numbers of projects, Railways are not able to achieve the desired level of progress. Railways needs funds for various ongoing projects like new lines, gauge conversion, doubling projects and construction of ROBs/RUBs, he said.