The Hindu Business Line : `We need to go commercial' — Mr R. R. Bhandari, General Manager, South Eastern Railway

Till March 31, 2003, the South Eastern Railway (SER) was the largest freight loading zonal railway, accounting for nearly 40 per cent of the total freight traffic handled by the Indian Railways. From April 2003, the areas served by the SER singly came to be served by three zonal railways.

Two new zonal railways — the East Coast Railway with headquarters in Bhubaneswar, and the South East Central Railway, with headquarters at Bilaspur — were carved out of SER's territorial jurisdiction. The SER, thus, became much smaller, geographically. Yet, in 2004-05, the SER, with a total freight traffic throughput of 73 million tonnes (mt), emerged the second largest freight loading zonal railway after South East Central Railway.

Mr R. R. Bhandari, General Manager of SER, spoke to Business Line about the freight operations the infrastructure demands and the industrial relations.

Excerpts from the interview:

The South Eastern Railway is a major freight loading zonal railway. What is the contribution of the freight traffic in the total revenue earnings?

Freight contributes nearly 80 per cent of our gross revenue earnings and 100 per cent of the net.

For example, in 2005-06, we hope to earn a total revenue of over Rs 4,000 crore, of which Rs 3200 crore will be from freight. The estimated Rs 1,000 crore of profit will come entirely from freight.

Which means you suffer loss by running passenger services...

In any business venture, there will always be certain pockets of loss. I do not regret losing money on passenger services. I make money elsewhere. Cross-subsidisation is virtually impossible to avoid in Indian situation.

What is your freight target for the current year?

The Railway Board has set for us a target of 78.75 million tonnes for the current year compared to our actual throughput of 73.07 mt in 2004-05.

However, we have set our own internal target at a much higher 85 mt, envisaging about 16 per cent growth.

Is it achievable?

Difficult, but not impossible altogether. We've to exert ourselves. We must function like a commercial organisation.

How hopeful you are?

I'm hopeful. It is wrong to presume that the business acumen of those employed in the Railways is in any way inferior to the business acumen of those in the private sector.

That the Railway employees can deliver efficiently has been amply demonstrated time and again, in normal times as also in times of crisis.

In April, the SER's traffic throughput was up by 1.1 mt to reach 6.3 mt, posting 16 per cent growth over the same period of the last year. Till May 18, the average daily loading of wagons at 8920 (in terms of four-wheelers) was 13 per cent more than that (7954) in the same period last year.

Besides, we now can load additional quantities in Box-N wagons as stipulated by the CC plus 4 formula (that is, carrying capacity plus additional four tonnes of cargo each wagon) which has been further revised to CC-plus-8 in respect of certain commodities, particularly iron ore, and certain routes, mostly in our zone.

Last May, we were having only CC-plus-two. Then there is reclassification of the freight items, with iron ore, the mainstay in our traffic throughput, having been put on a higher class.

In fact, revenue earnings of the SER in 2005-06, it is estimated, will be up by more than 25 per cent.

What are the major components of your freight traffic?

Raw materials for steel plants such as iron ore, coal, limestone and dolomite and also cement.

Will the existing infrastructure be able to support the projected growth in traffic?

Not exactly. There are certain areas where we are handicapped. Take for example, the line capacity.

In the Rajkharswan area, which is the iron ore loading belt, our line capacity is limited compared to the projected growth in traffic.

We're trying to augment the capacity not so much by laying additional lines but through various other means such as by improving the signalling system and track condition and removing speed restrictions.

All these should help achieve faster movement of rakes and therefore handling of more rakes in a given period.

We also need more wagons. By improving productivity of the existing wagon fleet, we can hope to achieve 50 per cent of the projected growth and the balance 50 per cent growth has to come by way of new acquisitions.

Right now our wagon holding is about 47,000 (in terms of four-wheelers), four per cent of which are defective wagons.

We would like to see the wagon holding stepped up to 50,000 and the two-thirds of the proposed acquisition should be the Box-N types. At present we have a fleet of 24,000 Box-N wagons.

In fact all our new acquisitions will be air brake systems; the wagons with vacuum brakes, such as BOX and BCX types, are totally out.

I am sure the Railway Board will favourably consider our demand for additional wagons if we can guarantee 16 per cent growth in traffic.

Do you have enough locomotives?

Yes, we are happily placed in regard to loco sheds and locos, so much so that we are required to provide locos to meet the demands of other zonal railways such as the East Coast Railway and the South East Central Railway, which till recently were parts of the undivided SER and, therefore, still to develop their own fleet and sheds.

For example, we have 245 electric locomotives and 20 of them are made available to other zonal railways.

Similarly, nearly one-third of our 150 diesel locomotives are offered to other railways. If we are not required to supply locos to other zonal railways, we will have no problems.

Are you happy with your industrial relations situation?

Yes, I'm happy, by and large. Recently we published seniority list for Group C and Group D employees. Earlier, the list was available only for Group A and Group B categories.

What about the allegation of corruption?

Yes, there are complaints of corruption. Unfortunate. The Railways pays each employee, depending on the position he or she holds, enough to meet the basic needs.

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