Hailing the Railway Budget as “reformist and forward-looking”, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said minister Pawan Kumar Bansal has done a commendable job in meeting competing demands of improving services and controlling expenditure.
Dr. Singh complimented Mr. Bansal for his “innovations” in critical areas of Railway infrastructure and paving the way for capacity expansion.
“It is a reformist and forward-looking Budget which presents a realistic picture of Railway finances,” he said while commenting on the Railway Budget which did not propose any hike in passenger fares even though some supplementary charges were hiked.
“The Minister for Railways has done a commendable job in meeting competing demands of improving and increasing services for commuters and controlling expenditure of his department,” Dr. Singh said.
Practical, implementable: Chidambaram
Terming the Railway Budget for 2012-13 as “practical and implementable”, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday said that his cabinet colleague Pawan Kumar Bansal has presented the finances of the railways in a very candid manner.
“The Railway Minister has presented a very responsible, practical and implementable budget,” Chidambram told reporters outside Parliament.
Mr. Chidambaram, who will present the General Budget for fiscal 2012—13 on February 28, said, “Within the resources the railways can mobilise, I think he (Bansal) has done a remarkable job of providing new trains, new lines, extensions, capital works and production facilities.”
On the financial conditions of the railways, he said, “I think after many years, he (the Minister) has candidly stated the finances of the railways... I think it is a very commendable budget.”
Forward-looking budget: Sibal
Giving his reaction, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal also termed as “forward—looking” the Railway Budget presented by Bansal.
He said the Budget has a vision of taking care of passengers.
Noting that Mr. Bansal had “honestly” stated that the Railway sector was not in very good financial condition,” he said, “I commend the Railway Minister for presenting a very practical, useful budget which will in the years to come really take care of the Railways through their own resources.”
Fine balance: Tewari
Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said the Railway Minister has done a “commendable job” and kept “a very fine balance“.
Mr. Tewari said he had been able to “reconcile various imperatives” while keeping the larger growth story of Railways in mind.
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid also said Mr. Bansal has done “a very good balancing job.”
Also, can we have a mechanism to stop people using train without tickets which is costing hundreds of crores every year. This practice is very much evident in UP, Bihar, Jharkand where people (locals without ticket) enter the coach and take the seat of reserved passengers. This creates annoyance and forces the passengers to avoid using trains and in some cases, it makes the others (who buy tickets) to follow the same.
One way will be to stop sharing the money generated from other zones, which means the money generated from southern railways to stay within southern zone so that people who 2pay" receive its benefit. This will also create other zones to think and do something about it. Otherwise we will never be able to stop these "joyriders".
It may be a fact that Railway officials in Thruvanathapuram,
Ernakulam, Nagarcoil, Madurai etc. operate scheduled trains under many
constrains especially shortage of coaches, lack of facility and
manpower for timely repair or maintenance of coaches etc. It is common
that operation of more trains are made possible by optimum utilisation
of rolling stocks when it run continuously, generally as part of two
designated trains, say an ‘up’ trip of the first train and a ‘down’
trip of the second train and ‘vice versa’. Usually coaches get just 5
– 6 hours break-time once in alternative days! Obviously, maintenance
and service personnel may have to schedule for attending coaches only
during this limited time. It is a disgrace that sometimes AC coach
passengers were forced to travel in ordinary sleeper coaches in
certain prestigious Express Trains towards the national capital.
Maintenance of Coaches while coaches are scarce:
The train accident at Alappuzha on 29th November,2012 wherein the
upper part of one of the bogies of Ernakulam – Kayamkulam Passenger
train was partially dislodged from its under-frame shows the finger
towards the laid-back attitude of our Railway system in timely
maintaining of coaches at frequent intervals and ensure safety to the
travelling public. For god’s grace the accident had happened while the
said train was about to halt at the Alappuzha Station.
This incident must open the eyes of the top brass especially of the
Southern Railway the need to revamp procedures on service and
maintenance of coaches in all divisions. There is no meaning in the
introduction of new trains, let it be upon adding the double line
without concurrently providing infrastructure with adequate manpower
for facilitating repair and maintenance of rail-coaches.
Thrust for Security of transportation process through Fire safety:
The ‘security of transportation process’ includes ‘Fire safety’ which
is an area of particular interest for all types of express and
passenger trains as well as lightweight high-speed trains. Indian
Railways must chalk out a systems approach to fire safety that will
lead to safest rail car design and materials, detection as well as
suppression systems, passenger evacuation and their interaction.
There must be fire safety guidelines that recommend the use of
flammability and smoke emission test methods and performance criteria
for all types of rail bogies with specific criteria for design of
seats or berths, furnishings, flooring etc. It is high time for Indian
Railways to revisit the current guidelines for clamping more stringent
amendments
Embark on Safety Programmes to manage Key missions:Indian Railways
must embark on very comprehensive Safety Programmes with a thrust to
manage the following key missions, Viz.eliminating bottlenecks on the
rail network’s main routes, taking into account the future volume of
traffic, by constructing additional main track;developing railway
stations, modernising automation and communications systems and
carrying out other work;renewing rolling stock ensuring the
operational reliability and security of the transportation process by
reducing the depreciation of fixed assets; increasing the reliability
of equipment, devices and machinery and ensuring that they meet modern
standards;imparting to the railway infrastructure new performance and
operational characteristics by increasing its ability to handle heavy
freight trains and passenger trains travelling at faster speeds or
with new dimensions
Ensure Gauge Conversion not detrimental to rural communities: The
general public had imagined that after the gauge conversions, there
will be adequate number of Fast passenger or Passenger trains with
stoppages in smaller towns where there are traditionally famous as
well as lesser known temples, rural markets for agricultural or hill
produce etc. Unfortunately by the time more and more routes were
converted into B.G, the priority was to introduce direct trains from
rail terminus of Southern Railways to bigger cities in other parts of
the country.
The Regenerating Braking System can be tried in all types of
locomotives and thus the recouped energy while braking is effected can
be transferred to the power grid. The switch over to the usage of
liquefied natural gas will reduce dependence on diesel oil, which the
production of gas on mass scale is to be planned.
Let me bring the following critical issues before the new Railway
Ministry.
Thwart death traps at Level Crossings:It will be fine if the Railways
contemplate to convert all unmanned level crossings into manned ones,
that too with inter-locking facility in a phased manner. Probably
Railways can charge the cost of manning to major industries or resorts
of the area, the main beneficiaries of the Level Crossings. Otherwise
these corporate can sponsor level Crossings with Gate Keepers.
Railway Ministry has to professionally earmark adequate provision for
Sinking Funds exclusively to replace signaling installations, rolling
stock etc. Revenues generated by leasing out unutilised railway
properties to the corporate sector can be pooled as a corpus towards
the sinking funds. There must be strategic planning so as to generate
operational saving by generating income from fresh sources.
Technology upgradation is inevitable for which the Ministry must
devise a phased program for reducing fuel bill specially by attaining
fuel efficiency. There should be no compromise to switch over to
latest high-tech rolling-stocks in a phased manner and it is necessary
for achieving the lowest fuel consumption.
Even Russia and China with large cross-subsidies are in no way
resistant to this vulnerability. There is a system of using cross-
subsidies to keep passenger tariffs at a low level and avoid making
appropriate contributions from the government budget, in European
nations. EU regulations entailing separation of accounts between
infrastructure, freight and passenger train operations had been
influential in phasing out cross-subsidies in many EU nations while
balancing the demand made on railways with the public funds, through
the government budget. Integrated railway with exclusive business
centres enhances transparency as well as management focus ensuring
accounts are balanced in all areas of business.Railway Ministry has to
give an emphasis for import of technical know-how for modernization
and ensure adequate safety standards prior to the implementation new.
projects meant for high speed corridors.
The inclusion of a member solely to deal with marketing and PPP will
be appropriate when we look into the magnitude of investments
projected for the next five years, which mark the 12th Plan period.
There is no way that railways' resource generation can create a huge
corpus to fund towards such massive projects. There must be
rationalised changes in the principle followed in respect of
subsidising passenger tariff as per the whims and fancies of the
ruling coalition.
The minister had already opinioned that the Cross-subsidy through
business is found unviable due to competition from other modes of
transport. It may be a fact that sometimes Cross subsidies reduces
funds available for reinvestment in viable services leading to
lowering the quality threatening competitiveness with other modes of
transport. The collapse of Freight Railroads in U.S prior to the
deregulation (with the 1980 Staggers Act) provides a striking
illustration of risk.
I suppose that Pawan Kumar Bansal will be certainly taking forward
from the incredible stand of Dinesh Trivedi for tying up future
railway fares with a "fuel adjustment component", which would rise and
fall in line with diesel prices. Following this doctrine will be a
good beginning of a doable pricing of tickets. It will be fine if he
could achieve what he had elucidated a couple of months’ back that
the fare hike will reduce the operating ratio from 95% to 85% enabling
railways to spare 15 paise towards investment for future which must be
enough for justifying his challenging move. Anyhow for the time being
the just announced Railway Budget 2013-14 had not enhanced fares but
hinted on marginal increase in reservation and cancellation charges.
Railway Ministry must consider the recommendations of committees for
modernization as well as for attaining enhanced safety standards,
based on which Dinesh Trivedi wanted Indian Railway to embark on the
public-private partnerships (PPP).
Though the Rail Budget has new trains, nowhere it has been mentioned
that the speed of the trains will be increased. There is no mention of
high speed rail services. Assume that we, the Indians, are slow in
adopting new technology, why not increase the speed of the trains to 5%
more than the existing speed. The average speed of a train is around 50
KM per hour and a new speed at an average of 5% increase in the speed
will result in 52.5 KM per hour. Is it difficult to accomplish this?
Please Email the Editor