China's railways zip ahead, India's merely chug on

The railways in India may be in the middle of a financial turnaround but China's railway system is still far ahead on most key parameters.

For starters, while the average speed of passenger trains in India is just 80 km per hour, trains in China run at not less than 200 km per hour. Also, while freight trains in the country normally run at a speed of 32 km per hour, Indian goods trains chug along at 25 km an hour.

The railways in India have 2,22,379 wagons, according to 2005-06 figures. In contrast, Chinese Railways had double this number (5,48,368 wagons). India has only 7,910 locomotives while China's total is 17,473.

However, the consolation for India is provided by the marginal gap in the ratio of total railway network to electrification. For example, while China has 20,151 km of electrified route out of a total 75,438 km (26 per cent of the total track), India's 17,450 km of route is electrified out of 63,465 km (27 per cent of the total track).

Railway officials cite three major reasons for China's superiority: Technological advancement, greater speed and the quality of rolling stock.

According to a railway ministry official, freight wagons in India, in terms of "loaded to tare weight" ratio, are behind China. In other words, China uses its wagons far more effectively than India.

Lack of mechanised loading in India also impacts the turnaround time of trains. While trains in China have a turnaround time of one to two days, it is 5 to 5.5 days in India.

This is primarily because average loading and unloading time in India is four to five hours for trains, whereas in China, it takes just 45 minutes to one hour, thanks to the radio frequency identification (RFID) system.

Railway experts say that due to congestion in terminals caused by the long turnaround time, the overall movement of trains is affected. Thus, they aver that, unless traffic management is computerised like in China and other countries with advanced railway network, things may not improve in India.

Further, while a diesel locomotive in China is of 6,000 hp capacity, those made in India are of 4,000 hp capacity. Again, while India's electrical locomotives have capacity of 6,000 hp, the Chinese ones have a capacity of more than 10,000 hp.

Indian railway officials agree that unless the basic alterations are not brought about in the design of rolling stock, and technological advancements are not made, the huge divide between the Indian railways and the Chinese railways will not be bridged.