Railways may not have announced any new trains this Budget, but this could be a part of its strategy to focus on demand-based passenger trains, as it feels that there is no point running trains with low occupancy.

Sharing this information with BusinessLine , Ajay Shukla, Member-Traffic, Railway Board, also said that the Railways has offers from steel and petroleum companies to invest in wagons. Edited excerpts:

What is your strategy to improve passenger train operations?

We have examined the passenger profile of trains across Indian Railways. Wherever we find that demand for unreserved ticketing is high, we will introduce general unreserved coaches.

Where waiting lists are high for reserved travel, we will augment second class and AC. Additionally, we will run more special trains on special occasions, such as Puja holidays, Diwali, summer and winter vacations.

As a matter of policy, we are conserving our coaching stock to run trains in times of demand, instead of running them when there is not much demand.

We are going to do focussed, need-based train operations, which entails better utilisation of coaching stock, better earnings to the Railways as well as passenger satisfaction.

Can you cite examples of low or high-demand routes?

For example, between Bihar and Punjab or Delhi, there is almost always demand for labour transportation – which grows particularly during the sowing and harvest seasons, particularly in the unreserved segment.

In those trains, we will add unreserved coaches. Similarly, during the Puja holidays, there is higher demand for the reserved segment towards Kolkata, so we will add reserved coaches.

There is no point in introducing trains just for the sake of doing it when there is no occupancy.

Which are the most profitable routes?

There are many routes with high-paying passengers, such as trains going towards Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru.

Can you comment on the predictability of tariffs – both passengers and freight?

We have to ensure that passenger fares are not so high as to make it uneconomic. Short-distance passenger fares should not be very low so as to wean traffic away from the road. Road and rail complement each other.

As a country, we have to ensure that both develop. Short-distance passengers, who have a road option, should not crowd out long-distance trains for passengers who do not have other economical options.

Short-distance passenger traffic should be dealt with Metro type of services that do not interfere with the Indian Railways’ mainstream traffic.

Has there been any change in the pattern of freight traffic after coal imports went up?

Not significantly.

Are there any changes in private freight terminal (PFT) policy?

We have made some changes. We had received 25-30 applications initially. But it dwindled after we did revenue sharing.

PFT operators said almost 500 more terminals can come up if people find the business profitable.

Their main grievance was that we changed the rules of the game in the middle, which is not very correct.

Now, with changes in policy, even if 200 terminals come with ₹100-200 crore investments, it will be good.

Do you see more investments coming in rolling stock side, such as wagons?

Yes, because investors realise that the Indian Railways has turned for good.

For the past many years, we were sluggish. Now, I have many offers in hand offering from ₹5,000 crore to ₹20,000 crore in different categories of infrastructure, including wagons.

Can you cite some examples?

Coal India’s offer (to invest in 5,000 wagons) is right before us and will be finalised very soon.

Petroleum companies have offered investment in petroleum wagons, steel manufacturers have offered to make wagons to carry steel and also invest in captive wagons to carry coal.

You have also been talking about tweaking the current wagon investment policy a bit…

Coal India is not covered under any existing policy. It is a new, specific tailor-made offer for Coal India. We cannot function with a ‘one size fits all’ approach. India is a large country and we have to be flexible.

The present regime believes in business-friendly policies. We need to make policies suiting our environment. These will fructify very soon.

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