ter for Indian Railways


in the past 65 years and India’s network today stands at 64,540 route-km. In comparison, China’s network grew to 78,000km in 2007, 91,000km in 2010, and 110,000km in 2012. The lack of progress is similarly apparent when considering the introduction of high-speed trains. India is yet to overcome its dilemmas, while China has progressed rapidly in the past decade to now operate 1580 services every day and is on course to open 18,000km of high-speed lines by 2015. It is a similar story for freight.


The United States, China and Russia separately carry approximately five times the volumes of India. Japan and China also carry more passengers than India each day. Clearly, IR has been unable to keep pace with


technological upgrade and infrastructure expansion plans with barely any capacity expansion taking place in the last 20 years.


The skewed policy of passenger fares versus freight tariffs also afflicts IR. For every Rs 100 earned by the railways, Rs 64 comes from freight and Rs 34 from passenger traffic. The remaining Rs 2 in revenues come from sundry earnings such as license fees, platform tickets, running special trains and advertisements. But to earn Rs 34 from passenger traffic, the railways have to spend approximately


Rs 60. Because of such inter- modal distortions, freight’s market share has slowly declined. IR carried 80% of inland freight traffic in 1947, but carries around 25% now. Proposals to set up a rail


tariff regulatory authority to rationalise fares have been on the drawing board for several months. But the political leadership has yet to make a decision on the matter.


All is not lost


Despite this, all is not lost for IR. Rapid progress has been reported in the implementation of the Rs 960bn DFC project to build 3330km of new freight lines on India’s eastern and western flanks.


Following the award of a Rs 33bn contract to build


NDIA’s new railways minister Mr Mapanna Mallikarjun Kharge took office on June 18, succeeding Mr Pawan Bansal, who resigned on May 10 amid corruption allegations, and interim minister Dr C P Joshi. Kharge is considered an unlikely figure for the task of pursuing a pro-reform agenda for Indian Railways. The 71-year-old socialist began his political life five decades ago as a trade unionist and has remained committed to the cause of empowering the deprived sections of Indian society.


I In his administrative


assignments in his home state of Karnataka - and more recently as the Indian labour minister - Kharge has largely been concerned with filling vacancies in government jobs, and he is expected to focus on recruitment for 22,000 unfilled posts at Indian Railways. “Proposals for opening up


production units for private participation or big ticket projects such as high-speed rail are unlikely to get a big


343km of new track from Khurja to Kanpur on the eastern corridor in January, the DFC corporation last month awarded a Rs 67bn contract to the Larsen and Toubro/Solitz joint venture to build a 640km double-track section from Rewari to Palanpur on the Western Corridor. The project is expected to become operational by March 2017. And with DFC trains likely to carry four times more freight than those on the existing network, the project will go a long way to de- clogging the choked arteries of the mainline routes. However, striking a note of caution is former railway board chairman Mr J P Batra. “Construction of the eastern and western DFCs will not solve all the problems,” he says. “There is a pressing need


push forward in the coming


months,” a senior ministry official said. With India’s next general


election scheduled for the start of next year, Kharge’s tenure is likely to last only around six


months, and he will not have the opportunity to present the next railway budget. Nonetheless, supporters insist


he will make an impact on Indian Railways.


“It would be a fallacy to consider him a stopgap railways minister,” a source close to the new minister said. “He reads files meticulously; has a hands-on approach and will make the best use of the time available to him.” Kharge spelt out his priorities on June 18, saying that “filling vacancies on the Railway Board would be his


first priority.” Three key management positions, including the post of chairman, railway board will become vacant this month and there has been intensive lobbying among the candidates for these positions in recent weeks.


After months of controversy and scandal, another immediate focus will be to restore stability to Indian Railways.


to initiate work on constructing the other freight corridors planned. Unfortunately nothing much has been done.” Indeed plans to build four additional dedicated freight corridors remain on the drawing board. These include the 2001km East-West Corridor from Kolkata to Mumbai, the 2173km North- South line from Delhi to Chennai, the 1110km Kharakpur - Vijaywada East Corridor, and the 890km Southern Corridor. Will the next railways minister bite off more than he can chew? Can he possibly accelerate big-ticket schemes such as the Rs 25bn plans for constructing elevated rail corridors in Mumbai? These are the multi-billion dollar questions facing IR in the next few years. IRJ


Mapanna Kharge appointed new railways minister


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