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This is an archive article published on March 18, 2012
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Opinion Let’s outdo China in Railways

The enormity of this crisis has completely escaped the attention of our policy-makers and policy-influencers.

indianexpress
Sudheendra Kulkarni
March 18, 2012 03:32 AM IST First published on: Mar 18, 2012 at 03:32 AM IST

The crisis in the UPA government last week,which erupted over something as minor as the long-postponed hike in passenger fares in the railway budget,has made me an angry man. I am angry because the political dimension of the crisis,which doesn’t really affect the common man much,has overshadowed the real,systemic and long-neglected crisis in Indian Railways,which not only affects crores of common rail commuters but has also severely debilitated the Indian economy. The enormity of this crisis has completely escaped the attention of our policy-makers and policy-influencers. Not surprising because most of them have simply stopped travelling by railways,preferring instead to enjoy the comforts provided by their expensive cars or the newly modernised air travel services.

short article insert I am emotional about Indian Railways for three reasons. For most part of my adult life,first as a student and later as a journalist-activist,I have been a rail commuter. Some of my unforgettable and life-changing memories are associated with the romance of rail travel,especially in Mumbai’s local trains. However,the extreme discomfort and hazard of travelling in the city’s overcrowded trains never ceases to feed my anger. Over 3,000 people get killed on the city’s railway tracks each year,all because the governments in New Delhi and Maharashtra don’t care. The father of a dear friend of mine lost his life,and so was the son of another friend,in these mishaps,which are a daily occurrence.

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The second reason for my anger is rooted in my experience of working closely with the railway ministry. It’s an experience that has made me aware of both the enormous strengths of Indian Railways and also of the precarious,almost life-threatening,financial and organisational malaise that afflicts it. Railway minister Dinesh Trivedi,though a thorough gentleman and a well-meaning politician,misled the nation by claiming that he “pulled the railways out of ICU” by hiking the fares for all categories of passengers. Those in the UPA government who applauded him,including the Prime Minister,were also guilty of not speaking the truth.

The stark truth is that IR is terminally sick. Trivedi was right in warning that IR could go the Air India way. Each and every committee that has examined its ill-health has concluded that it needs enormous infusion of funds for implementing long-delayed modernization,expansion and safety-enhancing projects – hundreds of them suffering from huge cost and time overruns. The ‘Vision 2020’ document prepared by the ministry two years ago put the figure at Rs 14,00,000 crore. The Sam Pitroda committee has said that Rs 5,60,000 crore are needed over the next five years for railway modernisation alone. Another recently appointed committee,headed by Dr Anil Kakodkar and E Sreedharan,has recommended urgent provision of Rs 100,000 crore for railway safety. (Consider this shocking factoid: as many as 25 per cent of railway bridges in India are over 100 years old!) This being the scale of funds required by railways,it is disingenuous on the part of the UPA leadership to create an impression that hike in passenger fares—which can at the most yield Rs 4,000 crore a year—is all that is needed to restore IR’s financial health. Why are the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister silent on their colossal failure to make adequate funds available to the development of an infrastructure as critical as railways? Why are they also silent on their total failure to initiate much-needed organisational reforms in IR,whose structure is archaic,over-bureaucratic,excessively centralised,change-resistant,inefficient and thoroughly unsuited to the demands of our times? It’s no use blaming coalition politics for this. The visionless and ambitionless leadership of the government and the Congress party has not even articulated this problem,leave alone presenting any solution to it.

Thirdly,I am angry because,as a proud Indian,I am pained to see that we are light years behind China in the development of railway infrastructure and services. India had railways (in 1853) well before China did (in 1876). In 1947,India had 53,396 km of railway network; China’s was only 27,000 km in length. Today our railway route length is about 65,000 km; China’s is close to 100,000 km. The fastest train in India runs at a maximum speed of only 150 kmph; most are a lot slower. China’s indigenously built high-speed trains,with speeds upto to 350 kmph,are the marvel of the world. The average speed of our freight trains is 26 kmph; China’s heavy-haul freight trains run at 120 kmph. Over the past five years,China has invested nearly 14 lakh crore rupees into its railways—only a tiny fraction of it comes from passenger fares. Train stations in Chinese cities are as good as their airports. Indeed,the newly built Beijing South railway station rivals the city’s magnificent airport or the famous Olympic stadium as a tourist attraction. In contrast,I cry whenever I look at the ugly and ill-maintained environs of the British-era VT railway station in my beloved Mumbai. As I mentioned in my last column (‘Bus adda vs Havaai adda’),why is our ruling establishment so callous about the need to create comfort and beauty in the transportation infrastructure for the aam aadmi,and only obsessed with the needs of the khaas aadmi?

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Let’s not forget—Indian Railways is not only a mass transport utility. It’s India’s lifeline. It’s a source of our national pride and a force of national integration. Therefore,let’s be angry at what has happened to it,and let’s resolve to make it the best in the world.