MUMBAI, JAN 29: On January 26 the Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd (KRC) completed its first year of operation beset with problem of delays in passenger services and a largely unsold freight capacity. In an interview, KRC managing director B Rajaram talks about the targets, high debts and late running of trains..Excerpts:The corporation seems to be doing well in the passenger sector but no freight traffic has been forthcoming. Won't this affect its health and your repayment schedule of public debt?It is too early to say as we have already foreseen negative income growth for the first three years of operations. One of the main reasons for our poor show this year has been the slow response of Indian industries to KRC. In the last twelve months we have shown to the world that trains can be run on the 734 km route without problems, that we can reach Mangalore in 17 hours and Cochin in 24 hours. Till now industry was unable to envisage a railway line on the Konkan coast. But now that the dream hasturned into a reality, we are hopeful that things will change for the better.How does the KRC plan to market itself in the coming year?We cannot attract freight traffic if industry remains unaware of the advantages of the route. So we are arranging meetings with the business community. In Maharashtra we are holding discussions with the Confederation of Indian Industry so that it can tell its members to take into account the Konkan Railway while planning their distribution networks. The Goa CM has also called us to meet industrialists to find ways to transport goods to and from the state.What kind of goods transport do you think will KRC get?We are looking at product specific traffic. For example, we are offering CEAT Tyres in Gujarat dedicated services on our route for transporting rubber from the south and then taking the finished products back to Mangalore. In the oil sector, we have provided the Mangalore Refineries (which is increasing its production capacity from six to 10million tonnes a year) a northward connection so that the additional oil can be transported there. We plan to attract traffic which has traditionally been moving by road.The KRC has also advertised a roll-on-roll-off (RoRo) scheme for truckers. But it does not seem to be a highly paying proposition. Is it because the KRC is desperate for any type of freight?The RoRo scheme is not that bad. It will pay more than the revenue earned by running a Rajdhani. Once the scheme catches on we will raise the rates to nearly Rs 7,500. We also aim to decongest the national highway (NH-17) through this scheme. What is the harm in losing a bit of revenue as long as it will help make travel safer and more comfortable? If the response is encouraging I will not hesitate to make it permanent; after all I only run six trains though my capacity is 15 trains.Speaking of passenger services, complaints of late running of trains have remained unattended to for long.Regarding delays, we are just a bridge between theSouth and Central railways. The delay usually occurs at the starting point of the train; we do not have anything to do with it. In fact, we maintain a speed of 60-62 km/hour, the normal speed for any train on this route.There seem to be some coordination problems between the Central, South and the Konkan Railway in this regard.That is true, and the problems are being sorted out. In fact, we had a meeting at Madgaon on January 5-6 with a Railway Board member and representatives of the Northern, Central and Southern railway to thrash out the matter. It isagreed that the time-tables of the trains passing through the Konkan Railway route will be changed to minimise delay in other sections. We should definitely see a change for the better during this year.So these are just teething problems for KRC?I certainly hope so.Finally, given the present scenario, how confident are you of reaching your target of a Rs 500 crore surplus by 2001?This is the corporate statement of KRC and weintend to meet it.
