Friday, 17 May, 2024
By: Anshul Vipat
Fifty percent of Railway network is already operating above line capacity, and there is a shortage of funds to meet track maintenance targets. Image Source: IANS
The Railways has made a seminal shift in policy by calling bids for more than ₹50,000 crore for private or public parties to manufacture 200 Vande Bharat equivalent trains, 100 aluminum train-sets and another 100 aluminum push-pull trains in the Railways’ factories and workshops.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off India’s fifth and South’s first Vande Bharat train from Bengaluru on Friday. The train is scheduled to run between Mysuru and Chennai. It aims at cutting travel time and offer a new experience to passengers. All coaches are equipped with automatic doors, GPS-based audio-visual passenger information system, onboard hotspot WiFi for internet connectivity, and comfortable seats. This is nearly four years after the first rake was unveiled by ICF in October 2018, which received a great deal of kudos by the public at large as a unique development of indigenous technology, encompassing design and manufacture.
There is good reason to believe that these new trains could lead the great Indian Railways makeover - which is looking at competing with budget airlines, becoming more profitable in some passenger segments, modernising travel experience and shifting the rail network towards higher speeds right up to bullet trains. Railways plan to introduce more than 400 such trainsets in near future.
Looking at trains alone, the Railways has made a seminal shift in policy by calling bids for more than ₹50,000 crore for private or public parties to manufacture 200 Vande Bharat equivalent trains, 100 aluminum train-sets and another 100 aluminum push-pull trains in the Railways’ factories and workshops.
The track record of the government in finalising huge rolling stock tenders has been good; for example, the Railways recently ordered its biggest ever contract for acquiring nearly 75,000 wagons in three years for approximately ₹27,000 crore. It expects to finalise these tenders in the current fiscal itself. And add to this another 100-odd Train 18s, ordered on Railways’ factories, mainly ICF.
To fuel this juggernaut on wheels, the capital outlay of Rs 2.45 lakh crore in 2022-23 is 14 percent higher than the budgeted capital expenditure of last year. Further, the Indian Railways’ National Rail Plan – 2030 is a planned and integrated roadmap to build a future ready rail system, focusing on capacity augmentation, creation of world class passenger facilities/infrastructure, increasing safety and efficiency, and reducing its carbon footprint.
INDIAN RAILWAYS’ FUTURE MONETISATION PLAN
Source: Budget documents, 2022-23
Tracking the railways progress
According to official government data, progress of Railway projects particularly in the segment of track electrification, gauge conversion and initiation of new lines has been increasing over the past few years.
The rail network electrification done in the seven years between 2014 and 2021 (24,078 kms) is over three times the coverage between 2007 and 2014 (7,223 kms).The Indian Railways completed electrifying 6,015 kilometers in 2020-21, making it the highest ever electrification mark in a single year. It surpassed its previous record of 5,276 kilometers completed in 2018-19.
The latest broad-gauge network of Indian Railways is 63,949 kilometers and with an addition of 740 kilometers of Konkan Railway, it totals to 64,689 kilometers. Out of this, 45,881 kilometers or 71 percent has been electrified as of June, 2022.
However, it is also true that the Railways have never been able to complete their electrification target in all these years.
During the financial year till September 2022, railways have completed 1352 track kilometers of new lines, gauge conversions and multi-tracking projects. The combined figure is more than three times the last year's corresponding figures for the same period during the last financial year. This excludes the potential game-changer for the logistics sector, the Dedicated Freight Corridors that is expected to reduce transport cost and almost double (over time) the Railways’ modal share in freight traffic, through their modern design and enhanced operational capabilities. The first two – the eastern and western freight corridors are expected to be commissioned by 2022 year end and could potentially enhance the profitability of the Railways’ freight business through better services to customers.
There has also been a significant increase in track renewals. Periodically, tracks are replaced on important routes to improve safety, passenger comfort and speed. Track renewal data collated from the annual reports of the Ministry of Railways, the open data portal of the government, Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha answers and a press release of the government suggests that in 2013-14, 2885 kms of tracks were renewed. In 2021-22, the number is more than 4400 kms as per the above collated data. This is important considering Railways' aspirations towards building a semi-high speed network.
The average length of renewal however is lower than the previous government. It was 3357 kms a year during UPA-2 while it is 3027 kms a year during the last six years of the current government.
While it is encouraging to see that progress is being made, as the data shows, the pace of change is not nearly fast enough. 50 percent of Railway network is already operating above line capacity, and there is a shortage of funds to meet track maintenance targets. To make matters worse, IR’s financial performance is deteriorating with first-quarter shortfalls in both freight and passenger earnings.
IR’s passenger losses has kept on increasing year after year. Passenger fares and freight rates are deliberately held down by the government as a large proportion of the population depend on low rates for their very survival. IR is also a state-within-a-state providing cradle-to-grave support for its employees and their families including health care and social activities, which is why jobs on the Railway are so highly prized.
To put IR on a commercial footing would require the government to fund the Railway properly to provide socially-necessary train and welfare services. So far, Indian politicians have shown little appetite for such a major reform.
