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The impact and importance of Indian Railways in the country’s socio-economic development need no reiteration. Railways has been the principal mode of transport in India. It has become a part and parcel of the country’s life, influencing our art, history and literature as well as proving a unifying factor for the vastly diverse people of the nation.
Way back in 1853, wheels rolled on rails on April 16, the first railway train travelled between Bombay and Thane.
What started as a system to serve the colonial interests of the foreign masters has developed into the main vehicle for socio-economic development of a welfare society. The planned growth and development of the railway system started from 1951. Much conscious effort haws been put in to improve the productivity of the assets and modernization of technology.
The Railways which had earlier been managed by the combination of private and government owned companies was reconstituted and became an exclusive monopoly of the government. It played a leading role in the development of a sound, vibrant industrial base for the country and continues to do so. The Central Government is the sole share holder of Indian Railways and receives a fix dividend on the capital invested.
Indian Railways in 2004-05 moved 602 million tonnes of Revenue Earning Traffic. This is 8 per cent higher than previous year. In the current financial year till May 2005, the freight traffic has grown by 14 per cent. Only China, USA and Russia are carrying more freight traffic than Indian Railways.
Open Market Challenge
In the past few years, railways has taken fresh initiatives to meet the challenges thrown up by the open market. Management philosophy for an organization of Indian Railways size is extremely important not only for the organization but for the Nation also. Indian Railways has adopted a management philosophy, which aims at zero failures of men, materials and machines.
Indian Railways formed RITES and IRCON in 1970’s. Expertise of RITES lies in consultation & project management and expertise of IRCON in project construction. Both have now developed expertise in the areas of Ports, Airports, Roads, Inland waterways besides Railways. They are undertaking successful projects in foreign countries earning valuable foreign exchange and have established themselves as reputed international concerns.
Indian Railways in 1988 formed Container Corporation of India as it was felt that high rated non-bulk traffic cannot be sustained within railway system. The company has grown manifold now and pioneered bulk containerization in India. Indian Railways also formed Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation for looking after its catering business. The company is today providing value added services to its customers through e-ticketing. Similarly for exploiting the communication revolution Rail-Tel has been formed.
With the creation of smaller administrative railway zones, it has been possible to achieve an all round improvement in the functioning of the Railways due to better supervision and monitoring. Since all Zones contribute to the performance of Indian Railways as a whole, the improvement in overall performance of the Indian Railways indicates a significant contribution of the new zones.
Human Resource is the most important assets for Indian Railways. From 1.8 million-man power in 1986, the man power strength today stands at 1.4 million. Indian Railway today is an example of excellent industrial relations despite being a labour intensive organization. After 1974, there has been no strike in Railways.
Passengers’ Safety and Comfort
Improving safety and improving people’s perception about railway safety is also a major challenge. A Corporate Safety Plan has been finalized. Efforts are on modernize the infrastructure and the maintenance practices emphasize on the need to reduce the role of human elements in accidents.
Railways has always remained in the forefront of bringing in modern technology for providing more comforts to the passengers. Apart from the advantage of higher speed and better riding comforts passengers coaches are 27 per cent lighter resulting in energy saving. Railways has also taken the lead in the field of EMU technology by introducing state of the art dual voltage three-phase technology with regenerative braking feature in Mumbai area in line with national objective of energy conservation. These EMUs are capable of running both on existing DC as well as AC system.
Freight Development
On the freight side Railways has put into operation high-speed container flat and corrosion resistant stainless wagons. An Integrated Modernisation Plan for 2005-2010 has been prepared. Projects and areas have been identified which will need investments to the tune of Rs. 24,000 crore.
Indian Railways’ future freight strategy will depend on four factors- Firstly, augmentation of sectional capacities which will involve mainly infrastructure improvement. Secondly, reducing the unit cost of transportation for its customers by moving higher axle load trains, double stack container movement and similar other measures. Thirdly, building relationship with customers i.e. encouraging private rail-based sidings, rail side warehousing and private freight terminals. Fourthly, tariff rationalization. The high-density network, which connects four metro cities of Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai including the diagonals, is popularly called the Golden Quadrilateral. Though comprising only 16 per cent of the network it carries 65 per cent of the goods traffic and 55 per cent of passenger traffic. This network is saturated in most of the sections. Indian Railways had undertaken National Rail Vikas Yojana, a scheme for augmenting this busy network along with strengthening of port connectivity and its hinterland connectivity. Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. had already been formed to undertake the works under the scheme.
The possibility of additional double line Dedicated Freight Corridor is being explored in the first Phase between Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah route. A separate freight corridor as part of long term strategy to keep pace with the future demands of Indian economy, set to grow with the lowering of barriers to FDI and trade will be a necessity. The Corridor will be fit for speeds up to 75/100 Kmph and will be preferably electrified wherever feasible.
For reducing the cost of transportation movement of heavy axle load train and double stack container movement are proven concepts world wide. Trial running of 9000 tonnes heavy haul trains was organized in 1986. Railway Board have recently increased the axle load of freight wagons resulting in increasing of carrying capacity by 7 to 12 per cent. This will enable Indian Railways to reduce the cost of transportation per NTKM from 61 paise to 56 paise and reduction in operating ratio to 87 per cent from present 91 per cent.
Public Private Partnership
To enhance the Railway share in transportation, freight customers are being encouraged to develop their private sidings. Guidelines in this regard had been issued by Railway Board in March 2005. It has been decided that the OHE maintenance cost for existing as well as new sidings will be borne by the Railways. Indian Railways has also entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Central Warehousing Corporation who will develop integrated warehouse complexes at 22 locations. A scheme for development of integrated warehouse complex by private sector has already been announced to encourage public-private partnership. This will provide a single window service to the customers for providing value added service of forwarding, handling, warehousing and road bridging.
Indian Railways for past 3 years has been regularly rationalizing its goods tariff. Under the new rationalization the tariff will have only 80 group of commodities instead of existing over 4000 commodities. As against the existing practice of minimum chargeable rate of the wagon, all commodities will be charged on the basis of carrying capacity of wagons. In 2005-06 Budget the highest class rates have been reduced to make the freight structure more compact.
The process of managing Railways will involve devising new strategies to meet the challenges of future. The organization with its time tested traditions and values, is well-equipped to come up to the expectations of the nation.(PIB Features)
*Director (PR), PIB, New Delhi
**Director (PR), PIB, New Delhi
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