Training trains

Indian Railways IR is a behemoth on broken wheels. Under a succession of populist railway ministers,the national transporter envisioned self-expansion wearing blinkers. This wasnt a straightforward case of resource enhancement and capacity-building. Therefore,its welcome news that in the two weeks he has been in charge of the railway ministry,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already chaired a detailed review meeting of IRs state of affairs,urging the speeding up of projects and infrastructure-building,especially the Dedicated Freight Corridor,the Jamp;K Railway Project and projects in the Northeast. Most importantly,the prime minister pointed out the imperative of improving IRs operating ratio.

Under its last minister,Mamata Banerjee,the outmoded socialist monstrosity of a statist railway muscled its way back into IRs self-definition. We witnessed fantastic proclamations of Tagore museums,sports academies,bottling plants,eco-parks,and so on. The 2011 railway budgets plan outlay of a record Rs 57,630 crore is tied up with a mammoth borrowing of Rs 20,594 crore. Meanwhile,IR was staring at disaster. In the last fiscal,10 out of the 16 IR zones missed their operating ratio targets,only 206 route kilometres rkm were electrified of the targeted 1,000 rkm,freight loading fell short of target. The list could go on. But the bottomline remains that IR has been milked for populist schemes,suffered chronic underinvestment,and is running out of resources.

The railways must be overhauled. The idea and substance of IR must change if its to be built upon. For one,key reforms must be implemented: rationalising fares indexed to fuel costs and prioritising projects. The latter needs an evaluation of the economic viability of pending and new projects. Given the financial basket case that IR is,it has no choice. Ideally,2012 should see no separate railway budget,depriving the next railway minister of the licence to announce a veritable feast of projects. So much so for social viability minus economic commonsense.