Let The Indian Railways Go Public
by The Challenges faced by the Indian Railways and the proposed solution.
The Eurotrain, takes about 2 hours to reach Paris from London, a distance of 500 kilometres.
Compared to this, the Mumbai Rajdhani takes 14 long hours overnight to reach from New Delhi, 1400 kilometres.
Even the India’s fastest track lags far behind – Delhi to Bhopal, 700 kilometres, 5 hours!
And to talk about China, that’s technically just 13 years ahead of us in terms of liberalization, made its indelible red mark in the sub-continent by constructing the trans Tibetan track, using gaping technology. Imagine how the scenery out of the window would be! You, sitting on a Lhasa bound train, travelling a couple thousand kilometres above the sea level, with the snow capped Himalayan peaks at close distance…
The globalizing connectivity that it offers, will eventually win over the people and Tibet will readily accept merging with China, and its booming economy.
Hail China!!!
Indian Railways isn’t even prepared to connect Leh to New Delhi, delivering a jab at the Dragon.
The Way Ahead…
1. The Service….
The Railways has in it to pose a lethal enmity to the Airlines sector. Routes should be identified that are the golden goose in terms of profitability. New Delhi-Mumbai, to Howrah, Bangalore to Chennai, are some of them. Convert the tracks into high speed ones so that it takes 6-7 hours instead the usual 14 to reach Mumbai from Delhi.
There will be many takers for it, from the middle class to the upper.
2. Prevent the Trains from Victimizing…
Be it the stoppage of trains across the country by George Fernandes, the burning at Godhra, or the week in-out incidents in Bihar – Jharkhand, mobs burning, halting trains, completely twisting the fundamental right to “peaceful protests”.
The Railways must be freed from being the private property of the Minister, as demonstrated in the case of the Rajdhani hijack by the Maoists.
Any incident, be it halting, or burning, shouldn’t be tolerated. Any hindering act against the functioning of the Railways must be made a subject to severe punishment.
It seems, every other person in Bihar thinks himself capable to loot, burn, halt a train. This has to change…
3. Get it Corporatized!
The Indian Railways must be freed from the bureaucracy and managers from the IIMs should be recruited as a step towards corporatization; making it a strong, onward looking decision making unit, efficient and modern.
Why not declare it a company, like BHEL, IOC or NTPC?
4. Way to go Public…
Issue shares for the public to subscribe! From the extra-constitutional person in the east to the entrepreneurial dhokla savouring Gujarati, let them own a share. So that the next time fare is hiked, he would still smile, and will definitely think of burning the train thrice. His one act may bring down the value of the share!
A sense of personal belonging will prevail.
5. Modernize…
Train the caretakers making them as servile as those at the customer care centres.
Design coaches with wi-fi.
Outsource the snacks to big brands. Passenger will enjoy having a choice between a Mc-D burger or a Subway sandwich.
Increase the rolling stock, the number of coaches, and for heaven’s sake, “COLLECT THE HUMAN WASTE!”
Biogas centers must function at the stations, where the collected and stored waste is dumped, converted into gas, which in turn will generate revenue.
Turn the stations into malls.
The Railways is the only entity that owns the largest Ad-space and real estate. Monetize the first, erect on the latter!
I know, it will remain a dream unfulfilled. Only when our generation would take over in a a decade and a half, can one imagine a Eurostar zooming across the country. The present political class would continue to prostitize the Railways.
It will continue to be a holy cow, and the platforms will continue to stink.
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Post CommentManohar Avasthi
On January 24, 2010 at 4:11 am
I was searching for articles related to Indian Railways and found your blog. Though i wanted to dismiss your rant but thought against it. I\’m not sure whether you live in India or not. Also it\’s not clear when was the last time you traveled in an \”inefficient Indian train\”. First of all I agree with your assessment that Indian Railways has lots of problems. I\’m a die hard Indian Railways fan and a rail enthusiast in general. I had the opportunity to travel in Euro Rail,Singapore Rail, and here in Amtrak and Alaska Railroad. But unlike you i\’m not going to compare Indian Railways with the western rails. As i said earlier IR has lots of problems. Inefficient officials, cleanliness, stations etc etc. If few anti-social elements disagree with the govt then burn a train as you have shown here. The list goes on and on. But with all these setbacks IR is one of the most efficient railway system in the world. But how? The value you get for your money, that\’s how. You mentioned that Euro Rail takes only 2 hrs from London to Paris but you conveniently failed to mention that the ticket cost is from 39 pounds to 260 pounds depending upon what type ticket you get. Flexible or non-flexible. So the minimum you pay is Rs 3000 and max is Rs 20000 !!! Now compare that to New Delhi Bhopal Shatabdi – it costs you Rs 850/. Similarly Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani in First Class AC costs you Rs 3300/ for about 1400 Kms. Now you do the math for a 1400 Kms journey in Euro Rail. Then there are lots of factors. Track capacity, coach types, track occupancy etc etc. And how foolishly you have mentioned that IR has remained the same over the past 50 years. The suggestions you put forth lack an ounce of technicality or the feasibility analysis. I\’ll go one by one.
The Way Ahead:
Service: I don\’t think you are aware of the feasibility studies going one and already conducted between the major cities of India. To this effect tracks are being upgraded and recently Indian govt has placed an order for track testing rig from Moog worth 4 million USD. This will enable to test the track capacity and subsequently increase the load capacity. Also India is getting stainless steel coaches from Germany. To improve speed and safety the tracks have to be super strengthened and coaches must have excellent suspension system. IR is going forward with this scheme. I\’m not sure whether you know this or not. So your first claim in busted.
Prevent the Train from Victimization: India has a population of 1.2 billion. Everyday some 8000-9000 trains crisscross the country. It\’s almost impossible to place adequate security for each train. But the latest railway budget has that provision. Again those security personnel are helpless against an angry mob of villagers. This one i agree with you. Stern action must be taken against the culprits. But for this the central govt needs to be more proactive. It\’s not the fault of IR.
Get it Corporatize – Again i think you are not aware of the IIMA and IR partnership. IR has been funding IIMA to do research and feasibility studies. Just google it and you\’ll find. Lot of their findings have been implemented. Ofcourse there is always room for improvement.
Way to go Public… This one is mentioned in detail in the book Bankruptcy to Billions by Sudhir Kumar. BTW do you know who is Sudhir Kumar. I highly doubt it.
Modernize- If you are not aware of any modernization that\’s going on in IR then you are in a state of denial. It\’s slow but it\’s happening for sure. And for God\’s sake don\’t try to compare it with Communist China. If they want to lay tracks then they just lay it. If anyone opposes then he/she is thrown into the jail. India is a democratic country.
Since you are not aware of any kind of studies that IR has been conducting, let me tell you that high speed bullet train feasibility study was conducted between Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Pune route. It will cost Rs 100-150 crore per kilometer.!!! I can give you many more examples on station modernization, track improvement, coach improvement etc. I\’m confident that within few years IR will be in a decent shape.
But before spewing anything do little bit of homework. You have no clue regarding Indian Railways. Agreed that it has problems but you tend to forget that its main job is to provide mass transit to the poor as well as the rich at an affordable price and safely.