Can Goyal’s magic get Rlys on track?

Piyush Goyal’s trouble shooting skills at the Power and Coal Ministries seem to have helped him land the Railways portfolio.

No sooner had he taken office as the Power Minister, than the country faced a massive northern grid failure. Goyal went from one power station to another checking the performance during his initial days.

Soon after that the Supreme Court scrapped the coal block allocations. Goyal again found himself burning the midnight oil as the apex court had also set a deadline for fresh allocations of the blocks through auctions.

Three years later things had settled down, and Goyal with added portfolios — Power, Coal, New & Renewable, and Mines — was seen as one of the performers in the government and has now been duly rewarded. Goyal has been elevated to the rank of a Cabinet Minister holding charge of Railways and Coal.

Railways is a crucial Ministry which is always in public eye, where performance is measured every day. Also Railways now no longer has the glamour of a separate Budget, which has been merged with the Union’s.

The Ministry has been in news over the spate of accidents that occurred over the last few weeks, resulting in loss of lives and finger pointing within the Ministry. The fact that the Railways employs over 1.3 million people, and runs 21,000 trains daily, transporting 23 million passengers and 3 million tonne freight, reflects the huge challenge that Goyal faces. His predecessor Suresh Prabhu, who has been shifted to the Commerce and Industry Ministry, did his bit by improving the passenger and freight business. Prabhu also ensured that not many trains were introduced on the already overburdened rail networks.

Goyal will have to focus on upgrading basic infrastructure such as rail tracks and speeding up long pending projects like the Dedicated Freight Corridor to unclog the railway network.

Capital investments in the Railways increased to ₹1,21,000 crore by 2016-17 and it is eyeing ₹8,50,020 crore of investments over the medium term to fund rolling stock, network decongestion, high speed trains and passenger amenities.

“There is often not enough time for basic maintenance and repair work on tracks due to the busy schedule of trains. This obviously, then has an impact on safety as track maintenance has to be a routine affair,” said an official. The Union Budget 2017-18 had also proposed setting up a ₹1-lakh-crore railway safety fund and Goyal will have to ensure its proper utilisation.

Moreover with General Elections coming up in 2019, he will have to balance populist calls for improving rail connectivity and passenger amenities while keeping an eye on finances.

Railways’ finances also need a booster shot, which are already under pressure with passenger and freight business facing stiff competition from low-cost airlines and road transport. The operating ratio of the Indian Railways was worst in over 16 years – at 96.96 per cent in 2016-17.

On the agenda will also be speeding up the long planned stake sales in the Railway public sector units, including IRCTC, IRFC and IRCON that are faced with internal opposition.

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