The Hindu Business Line : No change in direction

THE good news of the Railway Budget first: Barring a modest increase in parcel rates, neither freight nor passenger fare has been hiked. The bad news is that it offers nothing new — no course correction to inspire public confidence that things will change for the better.

The Interim Budget, presented by the NDA Government in January, had spelt out major initiatives in safety and line capacity enhancement schemes — such as setting up the Special Railway Safety Fund (SRSF) and creation of Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL). The Railway Minister, Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav, has found it prudent to repeat most of them in his speech to Parliament.

Over the past decade, in spite of populist measures initiated by successive ministers, the single-minded effort by the Railway Board mandarins to cut their coat to suit the cloth and a policy of trying to get more out of less have at last started to pay some dividends. Also, freight has continued to grow steadily, rising by a whopping 38 million tonnes in March 31, 2004, over the previous year — the second such successive increase of more than 20 million tonnes of revenue loading.

The operating ratio is likely to be 92.1 per cent against the budgeted 94.1 for 2003-04. Now, based on past performance and perceived buoyancy in the market, Mr Laloo Prasad has proposed for 2004-05 a target of 580 million tonnes, an increase of 23 million tonnes over last year which, in spite of a small fall in passenger earnings, will keep the Railways in a modest surplus of Rs 873 crore.

With the Centre committed to picking up the tab for the major initiatives in safety and line capacity works, running the trains will be a breezy affair.

Earthenware kulhars replacing plastic cups for serving tea does make environmental sense, and so does Mr Laloo Yadav's the attempt to get station premises cleaned up. However, the system is just too large for efficient monitoring. To keep their political master happy, the Railway Board mandarins had hit upon the idea of trying to spread the limited infrastructural butter thin. Extending the run of an existing train, increasing the frequency, or just allowing a halt, howsoever brief, at a relatively unimportant station for a super-fast train was one such idea which was trotted out with panache in each Railway Budget.

In February 2003, the former Railway Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar, had announced extension in the runs of 24 trains, increased the frequency of 13 and introduced no less than 50 brand new trains. And in the Interim Budget, he went a step ahead and promised 17 new Sampark Kranti expresses between the State capitals. This promise Mr Laloo Prasad would not be required to keep, but he has also added his bit by announcing 15 new trains.

This Railway Budget is the usual litany of new trains, projects, gauge conversion, electrification, and so on, with plenty of figures thrown in to prove how it is all going to be done against all financial constraints. Coming from a State with high unemployment, providing more job opportunities should have been high on Mr Laloo Prasad's agenda. He has grabbed the chance by announcing a brand new wheel and axle plant. This is to make good the shortfall of the two units at Bangalore and Durgapur.

Keeping the thrust on computerisation, pilot projects for the Northern Railway for e-procurement of its purchases and another at the Badarpur Thermal Power Station (BTPS) for setting up an electronic payment gateway have been announced.

The Railways made a major breakthrough last year itself, with clearance of outstanding dues from the BTPS. This will be a step further in online realisation of dues, hoping to ultimately extend it to all other major power plants.

Unfortunately, Mr Laloo Prasad's attempts to introduce refrigerated vans for ferrying the vegetable produce from the Bihar to Delhi markets has not found many takers. He is unlikely to give up this initiative very easily.

Projecting himself as pro-poor, the Railway Minister has also announced a slew of concessions for widows of Defence personnel killed in action against terrorists/extremists, deaf/dumb persons, haemophilia patients and unemployed youth attending interviews for selection to Central Government jobs. This undoubtedly will generate a lot of paperwork for the ticketing booking offices.

(The author is a former Member — Mechanical — Railway Board. He can be contacted at acharya@ernet.in)

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