Brake Even

Good news for the city8217;s daily commuters came this week, but it was laced with ambiguity and agonising uncertainty. The Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Union Railway Ministry and the state government to set up a separate corporation for the suburban rail services promises breathing space for choked commuters. But a thick fog surrounds the corporation8217;s ability to raise finances, particularly in the post Pokhran scenario.

The whole idea of a separate corporation was mooted for reducing dependence of suburban services on the annual budgetary allocations. It was aimed at better utilising the revenue generated through locals for the commuters and raising additional finances from the market for future growth. But in the squeezing domestic and international money markets the prospects of raising finances at an affordable rate don8217;t look very encouraging. The domestic market faces a recession even as the political risk premium for India in the international arena has already reached an unaffordablelevel. Similarly, uncertainty surrounds the MUTP-II project which involves a large component of the World Bank loan. If the World Bank member countries, in toe with the USA, decide to 8220;punish India for its nuclear crime,8221; the future of the project could be in jeopardy. Considering the Konkan Railway Corporation8217;s experience, nobody believes that the domestic resources would be enough to shape up suburban services. If the Railway Ministry believes so, the 54 lakh daily commuters of Mumbai, almost half of the daily train users in the country, have the right to know how.

The railway minister needs to tell us more than what the commuters of Mumbai should have heard a long time ago. There is an urgent need to take the open-market social venture out of the realm of political euphoria before the dreams of commuters die an unnatural death.