Apropos “Railway modernisation needs to get on track (March 12), it is unfortunate that the Indian Railways continues to draw attention in the business news media for just two reasons — the non-revision of passenger fares over the last several years and the inordinate delay in awarding the public-private partnership (PPP) projects for manufacturing locomotives. This singular, short-sighted approach overshadows the immense capacity and resilience shown by this large public sector behemoth in meeting the enormous demands imposed on it by the nation. The Indian Railways has managed to increase freight loading by 200 million tonnes in a short span of three years despite the slowdown. The gross earnings show an annual incremental growth rate of 10 per cent with the freight loading projected at 990 million tonnes for the current fiscal ending in March.
Just to put things in perspective, the privatised British Rail continues to tax the public by receiving grants from the Treasury to the tune of £5 billion annually. Its freight market share is just eight per cent of the total freight moved in the country and the passenger fares are very steep as anybody who has travelled by train in the United Kingdom would know.
As far as the PPP models in India are concerned, let’s look at the Delhi International Airport Limited, a PPP airport that plans to revise its airport charges by a staggering 340 per cent to meet the development costs of the airport. It is time we looked at sensible and rational development policies in the infrastructure sector. It is also equally important that rail operations in this country are subjected to a balanced review.
Kalpana Dube Lucknow
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