The Hindu Business Line : Waiting for Lalu’s magic

A major initiative by the Railways which could have far-reaching consequences will be the introduction of Last Vehicle Device, which promises to eliminate an entire category of Railway staff, namely, the guard on goods trains.

In spite of the slight downturn in the economy, the Railways may still achieve the freight target.

R. C. Acharya

This will be the Railway Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad’s fifth consecutive Rail Budget. This year again one should see him pull a few rabbits out of the hat.

On the freight front, while the decision taken a couple of years back to enhance the carrying capacity of wagons across-the-board did boost the loading, such an opportunity for a quantum jump will not be there this year.

However, in spite of the slight downturn in the economy, the Railways may still achieve 780 million tonnes, just short of the target of 785 million tonnes.

Effect of polls

Even though freight is the bread and butter of the Railways, accounting for nearly two-thirds if its revenues, in view of the polls next year Mr Lalu Prasad could end up announcing a number of populist measures, including a host of new trains, extension of some to new destinations and increasing the frequency of others. Of course, any hike in passenger tariff would be unthinkable.

The ‘Dynamic Pricing and Commercial’ policy announced by Mr Lalu Prasad last year unfortunately has had few takers. This is because by the time decisions are taken at the Zonal and then at the Board levels, the urgency and advantages for a particular time slot of freight movement is often lost.

The growth envisioned for container traffic (100 million tonnes — 5 million TEUs) and cement and steel ( 200 million tonnes each) by 2011-12 is still a long way off. However for the financial year ending March 31, 2008, the Railways may manage about 100 million tonnes of cement and steel each (including raw material), while container traffic could touch 3 million TEUs.

Among the 14 players in the container handling business, only Adani, Hind Terminal, Boxtrans, B2B, India Infrastructure and Gateway Distriparks Ltd have made significant headway. In particular Adani, with its destination ports of Pipavav and Mundra. And Boxtrans, which now has a well established Delhi-Vizag link.

Concor on course

Of course, Concor has maintained steady growth and is likely to end up carrying 2.3 million TEUs , A Rs 2,000-crore company with fixed assets of over Rs 1,400 crore, Concor has built up an impressive tally of 57 terminals over the last few decades and is all set to continue to dominate the container scene.

With about 8,000 wagons at its disposal, which include nearly 6,000 of the low-height, high-speed variety, it continues to offer premier connectivity between Delhi and Mumbai.

In a new initiative, it is on the way to establishing a cold chain, which is a part of its long-term vertical integration plan.

Last Vehicle Device

A major initiative by the Railways which could have far-reaching consequences will be the introduction of LVD (Last Vehicle Device), which promises to eliminate an entire category of Railway staff, namely, the guard on goods trains. The guard’s main role at present is to report the arrival of a complete train at a station, a job which an LVD attached to the last wagon on a goods train would electronically and automatically do, enabling the Station Master to permit the next train to enter the section.

Undergoing tests at the RDSO (Research, Design & Standards Organisation), the R&D arm of the Railways, the LVD is slated for extensive field trials on the Konkan Railways, and would help downsize the Railways’ bloated workforce by about 86,000, cutting down staff costs, which account for more than half the Railways’ working expenses.

The high-speed corridor for passenger trains still remains a distant dream. Though announced by Mr Lalu Prasad in his last Budget, not much headway has been made in the direction of public-private partnership.

However, China has over the last decade managed to upgrade nearly 6,000 km of existing track for 200 kmph travel and plans to upgrade another 2,000 km of inter-city routes.

Ultimately its own version of bullet trains will hurtle through its vast countryside at 250 kmph and, ultimately, at 300 kmph.

In spite of project Unigauge started more than decade back, under which all metre and narrow gauge sections were to be converted to broad gauge to eliminate innumerable transhipment points, it still forms 20 per cent of the Railways’ route kilometres but carries only 1 per cent of the total freight.

In the last Budget, the Railway Minister had planned gauge conversion worth Rs 1,800 crore of 17 sections, including the vital Phulera-Ringus-Rewari stretch, which will open up the Delhi-Ajmer direct route, eliminating a detour of almost 100 km via Jaipur.

With the States pitching in with 50 per cent funding, things have considerably speeded up and soon the Ratlam-Khandwa-Akola section may be taken up on a priority basis to provide a vital alternative North-South link.

(The author is a former Member, Railway Board. E-mail: acharya@bol.net.in)