Indian Railways: The unfolding transformation

There are encouraging signs of this behemoth aggressively pursuing a refresh and rejuvenate agenda

The sheer size of Indian Railways, whether in terms of length of lines covered (67,000 km of track), the volume of freight carried (1.1 billion tonne), the number of passengers (8 billion), or even just the total number of employees (1.3 million) is enough to daunt the toughest of reformers. Add the burden of legacy issues and the lack of clarity between social, commercial and developmental objectives, and you have one of the largest institutional challenges anywhere in the world; a challenge that shows up in the persistent annual struggle to achieve a healthy operating ratio.

But it does appear that we have now reached a tipping point, where this behemoth is shaking off its decades-old lethargy and embarking on an energetic and multi-faceted refresh and rejuvenate programme.

Fresh thinking on various areas is evident. The founding of the National Rail and Transportation Institute, popularly referred to as the Railway University, is a deemed university in Vadodara. It seeks to build technical and managerial capacities to support the rail system. A faster phasing out of diesel engines from the network in tandem with a hugely aggressive electrification drive signals a new consciousness on the carbon footprint. Streamlining wagon orders from the earlier sporadic to a five-year perspective helps manufacturers. The e-procurement initiative and reworking the system of sanctions and delegations, have reportedly, had their desired impact on commercial governance matters.

The government is putting its money where its mouth is. The overall capital expenditure for 2019-20, at Rs 1.58 trillion is four times the amount compared to four years ago. The order-books of EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) companies are testimony to the rapidly increasing share from railways — be it electrification, track renewal, line expansion or dedicated freight corridors.

There has been a spate of energetic announcements like the Vande Bharat semi high-speed train now running between Delhi and Varanasi

Even beyond the broad numbers, there has been a spate of energetic announcements — whether it is the Japanese-funded bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, or the Vande Bharat semi high-speed train now running between Delhi and Varanasi. High speed rail (HSR) has been this government’s baby. It is now important that the various projects under the HSR initiative start rolling out quickly and efficiently. If the new government can ensure that the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train project is delivered on schedule, it will be a substantial achievement and the logical conclusion to the excitement that greeted the project when it was first announced. The RRTS (regional rapid transit system) with nodes around the national capital region should also be visible in a few years time.

The proposal to redevelop the infrastructure of 500 stations through public private partnerships and an additional 100 under the EPC mode has also given a fillip to the repositioning of railway stations, hopefully, closer to the airport experience. Dozens of other initiatives, especially those targeted at improving passenger experience, have been introduced, such as station-area facelifts, mechanised cleaning of stations, improved housekeeping and catering services and upgradation of passenger coaches under various schemes. The encouragement to local populations creating artworks at their own iconic destinations gives a sense of community engagement and pride. Sixty five railway stations have been decorated with wall-paintings and murals. Parallely, the well-intentioned bio-toilet installation project has had technical glitches and needs to be reconfigured and given the priority it deserves.

Beyond such visible initiatives, there are other changes as well. The shortage in availability of rolling stock to move coal to power stations, a long-standing problem, and the source of a constant blame game between the coal, railways and power sector for years has eased with the number of railway wagons carrying coal reaching an all-time high of 425 per day in 2018-19 (till February), compared with 387 per day a year earlier. 

Earlier, when the railways made headlines, it was almost always due to serious accidents such as the one near Amritsar in October last year which killed at least 60 people. Yet, the overall number of accidents has actually come down significantly over the last few years. All unmanned level crossings on the broad gauge network have been eliminated. 

Yet, the key challenge — that of institutional reform and restructuring — remains. Erudite committees over the last two decades have provided an incisive body of recommendations. These committees include those headed by Rakesh Mohan and Bibek Debroy (institutional revitalisation), Kakodkar (safety) and Sam Pitroda (modernisation). Politically prickly suggestions therein relate to a truly independent rail regulator and a railway board refashioned into separate governance and executive functions. The new government will do well to address such issues.

All said and done, the long years of merely announcing new trains and increasing stoppages of fast trains at preferred political constituencies are clearly over. 

The transformation train has pulled out of the station and is gathering speed. 

Vinayak Chatterjee is chairman of Feedback Infra (P) Limited