The Hindu Business Line : Panel raps Rlys for slow pace of expansion

Even as Indian Railways recorded a cash surplus before dividend of Rs 20,153.49 crore for fiscal 2006-07, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways has pulled up the Ministry for not expanding the physical railway network at an equally impressive growth rate.

However, recognising that the Railways has a huge number of pending projects owing to the lack of budgetary allocation, the Committee has recommended higher financial support.

The pace of expansion of railway network in the country has been very slow compared to other rail networks worldwide, particularly in China, the Committee has stated.

SLOW PACE

As on April 1, 1951, the Indian Railways had a rail network of 53,596 route km, including 25,258 km of broad gauge, 24,185 km metre gauge and 4,153 km narrow gauge.

Since then, over the last 54 years (up to April 31, 2004), the Railways had expanded its network to 63,221 route km, comprising 46,807 km broad gauge, 13,290 km metre gauge and 3,124 km narrow gauge — a growth rate of just about 0.33 per cent per annum.

Pulling up the Railways for not expanding its network in the rural areas, the Committee stated: Though the Railways has made continuous efforts to expand its network, shifting priorities and ad-hoc policies have seen to it that it could not make much headway in their pursuit.

The Railways’ emphasis has mainly been on the development and strengthening of the Golden Quadrilateral and its diagonal routes, whereas the projects taken up on socio-economic consideration have been given low priority.

Socio-economic projects

The Railways, which can make a remarkable difference by developing the backward regions, now has about 60 projects sanctioned on socio-economic considerations.

Incidentally, to take up these projects, the Railways had announced a scheme called Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojana, envisaging a Rs 20,000 crore investment over a five-year period in the interim Rail Budget of 2004-05. However, till date, no funding arrangement has been tied up, observed the Committee headed by Mr Basudeb Acharia.

Apart form these projects, with socio-economic consideration, the Committee notes that the 240 pending projects include new lines, gauge conversion, track-doubling, electrification and metropolitan transport projects.

The projected cost of these projects was assessed at Rs 47,354 crore on April 1, 2005.

In this backdrop, the Committee has recommended that the budgetary support to the Railways be adequately enhanced so that projects taken up in hilly, tribal and backward areas could be completed as soon as possible.

It has also suggested setting up an expert Committee comprising eminent economists, representatives of the Planning Commission and the Finance Ministry to explore new sources of funding and suggest ways in which these projects can be completed within five years.