Railways mulls exclusive suburban tracks

Parallel lines: Running suburban services on existing tracks affects the capacity of freight, long-distance trains.

Indian Railways may soon build exclusive rail tracks for suburban trains in a bid to ease congestion. The Railways will partner states through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for suburban train systems, which would be empowered to propose a surcharge on passengers for recovering operating losses and capital costs of such projects.

“Since running suburban services on existing tracks adversely affects the capacity of freight trains and long-distance trains, it would not be possible for Railways to use existing infrastructure for the purpose of suburban services. Exclusive tracks for suburban services shall be considered,” according to the draft policy guidelines for taking up new suburban rail systems on Indian Railways dated December 6.

At present, the Railways is running suburban train services in certain sections on the tracks laid primarily for long-distance trains. The Railways has framed the draft guidelines to address the demand for more suburban trains from the state governments.

Suburban railway projects are proposed to be implemented and operated through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) with equal equity participation from the respective state governments and the Railways.

Dedicated fund

According to the draft guidelines, state governments would set up a dedicated urban transport fund through “levy of dedicated taxes, levies, betterment tax, impact fee”, among others in the “influence zone of proposed railway station” to finance the capital cost of suburban train projects.

Further, the Indian Railways, on request from the SPV, may restructure fares on suburban trains and impose a surcharge to recover the operating losses and the capital cost “if operating losses are not recovered from the dedicated urban transport fund.”

The state governments will be required to conduct feasibility studies of the project at their own cost which will be examined by zonal Railways and subsequently sent to Indian Railways.

States will have to ensure there is no delay in land acquisition and Indian Railways will only contribute its equity share to the SPV once 70 per cent of the land to be acquired is made available by the state government, as per another proposal. States will have to bear the complete cost of land acquisition, leasing of railway land and resettlement and rehabilitation.