The Centre is about to finalise an overarching National Rail Plan (NRP) to provide a definite roadmap to augment railway infrastructure and services for the various units of the Railways.
The NRP will lay down sector-specific course of action with the aim to meet the expectations of different strata of society and the economy. Besides the NRP, a dedicated body for research and development (R&D) in Railways will be created since infrastructure investment for the national transporter has been going up considerably. It has touched Rs1,31,000 crore in 2016-17.
According to Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, the NRP will help resolve all infrastructure-related issues, faster train projects and passenger services like free water and versatile e-catering in order to meet the diverse expectation of the society, economy and the political class, which look upon the railways.
The NITI Aayog will present a report regarding establishment of the R&D unit soon.
“Railways faces a ‘paradox’ where it is expected to provide services like concessional travel and meet social objectives like a Government enterprise. But at the same time it is expected to perform like a commercial company. The organisation is trying to meet these diverse expectations,” Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu told The Pioneer on the sidelines of an event last week.
He mentioned his Rail Budget’s seven missions, including the ‘Mission to have zero accidents’, ‘Mission on Speed’ and ‘Mission on accounting reform’ etc to bring rail network on the “right-tracks”.
A senior railway official said NRP would take into account the studies conducted by various marketing research and analysis bodies, including those conducted by Ernst & Young, Nomura to refurbish Indian Railways. “Almost all the national and international marketing agencies have suggested for vibrant investments in the railway sector in India,” added the official.
In an effort to bring faster trains and meet the political as well as social expectations, Railways have already imported a Spanish train Talgo on an experimental basis. Talgo, which will be begin its trial shortly, will reduce by five hours the time taken on the Delhi-Mumbai route (from 17 hours to 12 hours).
As part of the NRP, the ambitious rail network in North East will be shifted to broad gauge.
While the Railway Ministry is working with States to reduce delays because of stoppages, the NRP would also supervise the transformation plan of 400 railway stations through PPP mode, the first of which has begun for the Habibganj station in Bhopal. Besides, to meet the demands of various sections, different types of faster trains like Antoday, Humsafar, Tejas, Mahamana and Gatimaan are being brought in.