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The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government has accorded priority to development and expansion of railway infrastructure in the Common Minimum Programme (CMP). Modernization of Railways, safety and security of passengers, replacement and renewal of assets, particularly track renewal, cleanliness, improvement in passenger amenities, control over expenditure and prevention of leakages of revenue have been given priorities as thrust areas for improving rail services to the nation.
Under the new Government, the Railways are being reoriented to work for the advantages of the poor and the common man. So far, the impression was that the Indian Railways were drifting from the common man and the poor and turning commercial and elitist. The decision to introduce Kulhar, the earthen pot in railways, milk products in the form of Lassi, Matha, buttermilk and other milk products, transportation of farm products including fresh fruits and vegetables from green growing areas to the major consumption centres by refrigerated vans, handloom and khadi speak volume of the re-oriention of Railways and its growing concern for the masses.
Safety continues to be accorded top priority. Safety standards have also recorded a phenomenal improvement as consequential train accidents came down to 325 in 2003-2004 from 351 in 2002-2003 and 473 in 2000-2001. During the period ending October 2004, the number of train accidents has come down substantially to 133 as compared to 217 during the corresponding period of the previous year, registering a decline of 38.70 per cent.
A decision has been taken to fill 84000 vacancies in safety category, which had accumulated during the last six years.
A time bound action plan on all round modernization of Indian Railways at a cost of Rs. 24,000 crores has been worked out to modernize, upgrade and augment rail services to the nation in keeping with the Common Minimum Programme of the UPA Government.
As for security of rail services, additional responsibility to Railway Protection Force (RPF) for escorting passenger trains and provision of security in passenger areas have been accorded with effect from July 1, 2004. About 1500 pairs of trains are since being escorted by the RPF. Besides, skills of RPF have been upgraded and direct recruitment to the Force, reverted from Railway Recruitment Boards to the original system of recruitment by the Security Department.
There has been no increase in freight rates and passenger fares. However, around 7.1 per cent increase in parcel rates has been effected to mop up Rs. 50 crores in the current financial year. Added to these, various other welfare measures for empowerment of railway women employees, porters and grant of Unorganized Workers Social Security Fund for the benefit of licensed porters have been set in motion.
Other innovative measures include Electronic Payment Gateway for speedy and secure transfer of funds from freight customers, engine on load system, rebate of 10 per cent on movement of heavy machinery and other steps to check overloading and undercharging through a sustained drive across the country.
In addition, several innovative and employment oriented steps have been taken by the new Government. These include bridge improvement and rehabilitation, trials of corrosion resistant wagons, introduction of crew friendly cabs, setting up of International Railway Strategic Management Institute, computer based traffic control system, extension of Material Management Information System, a pilot project on e-procurement, computerization of claims offices, extension of Unreserved Ticketing System, further extension of Passenger Reservation System, extension of Rake Management System of Freight Operations Information System, Coaching Operations Information System, transparency in award of catering contracts, improving catering services, including provision of milk products sourced from State Dairy Milk Cooperatives at Railway Stations and in trains, rationalization of book stalls, cleanliness drive as a mission for Indian Railways, better availability of wagons to customers, concessions to widows of Defence personnel killed in action against extremists and terrorists, escorts accompanying deaf and dumb persons with 50 per cent concession, 75 per cent concession in fares to haemophilia patients travelling for treatment and full concessions in second class to unemployed youths attending interviews for jobs in Central Government. During the period ending September 2004, Railways earned Rs. 221001 crores from total traffic, registering a growth of 8 per cent over the last year and Rs. 481 crores higher than the budgetary target.
A new catering policy has been announced. This stipulates award of Licenses of major and small catering units at ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ category stations through two packet tendering system based on competitive and transparent biding. The new policy contains stringent conditions on the eligibility criteria for the tenderers to prevent monopolization by a few. However, for low budget catering contracts at ‘D’, ‘E’ and ‘F’ categories of stations, caterers from lower strata of society with reservation of 49.5 per cent for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Minorities has been made. The new catering policy provides for increasing revenue of railways from the existing Rs. 22 crores annually to Rs. 500 crores.
A new system of two packet tendering based on competitive biding and openness has been adopted in the revised book stall policy 2004 for contracts of book stalls at A,B and C category stations. A reservation of 25 per cent has been made for licenses of book stalls at B,C,D,E and F category stations for specified categories.
From 2005-2006 onwards, bogies and couplers will be made free supply items for all wagon builders.
A project of developing environment friendly coach toilet discharge system has been taken up as a technology mission on railway safety in keeping with the objectives of the Government of India to eliminate open toilets by 2011-2012. This is designed to keep stations and track area clean and eliminate corrosion of track, track fittings, bogie and under gear parts of the rolling stock.
Tatkal reservation scheme to enable passengers to travel at a short notice has been extended to all mail and express trains including Rajdhanies, Jan Shatabadies and Shatabdies in all classes except in first air conditioned class.
Purchase of reserved tickets through mobile phones, launched on September 2004 in Delhi area as a pilot project is being extended to the rest of the country in a phased manner.
Integrated telephone inquiry services through Interactive Voice Response System and manual mode are being set up as pilot projects at Bangalore and Patna to help users in a telecom circle access inquiry about the Passenger Numerical Record (PNR) status and train inquiry on all modes of telephones. This will be extended all over the country shortly.
All air conditioned coaches will be fitted with electrical points for charging Cellular phones and Laptop computers within a timeframe of one year. This will ensure connectivity to passengers onboard.
A Technology Mission on Railway Safety has been taken up jointly by IIT, Kanpur and Research Designs and Standard Organization (RDSO), Lucknow to focus national attention on modern technologies of monitoring, control, communications, design, electronics and materials for railway safety.
Techo-economic feasibility study by a Japanese company has been commissioned for introduction of high speed trains on Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor, to begin with.
With several innovative measures for improving rail services to the nation, the financial health of Indian Railways is looking up. Operating Ratio, which is measuring standard of the financial health of Indian Railways, stands at 92.1 per cent as against 94.1 per cent budgeted for the year ending 2003-2004. This means that for earning one rupee Indian Railways have to spend 92.1 paise. This is indicative of marked improvement compared to the year 1999-2000, when the Operating Ratio slide to over 98 per cent.
The other important ongoing projects under the Special Railway Safety Fund, the National Rail Vikas Yojana and Udhampur-Qazigund-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail link are progressing to the target.
In the 152 years, the Indian Railways have come a long way since it was introduced on April 16, 1853. It has now more than 63,000 route kilometres, runs 15,000 trains daily, including 9000 passenger trains and 6,000 goods trains. The volume of traffic is also very high. About 14 million passengers travel daily with more than 15 million tonnes of freight traffic. The distance covered by Indian Railways within a cycle of 24 hours is four times the distance between the earth and the moon. The population of 46 nations travel by rail in India daily.
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