As 2023 draws to an end, assessing Indian Railways’ (IR) performance unveils a mixed landscape. Amidst significant strides in infrastructure, the year reveals underwhelming freight loading and financial performance.

First, the positives. Thanks to more focus and vigorous execution in 2023, the two Dedicated Freight Corridors, mooted in early 2000s but having languished due to tardiness in land acquisition and contract execution, are nearing completion. Hopefully, the entire project, the now truncated eastern corridor from Sonnagar to Ludhiana and the western corridor from Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai to Dadri should be fully functional by 2024-end. More than 200 freight trains are already running on the corridors.

The project cost has increased manifold since the sanction to ₹1.24-lakh crore; the heavy burden of servicing the loans has prevented competitive freight transport pricing and therefore the expected reduction in logistics costs. Nevertheless, early signs of completion of a project that has been dragging along for a decade is a positive factor.

The Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL), symbolic for connectivity and seamless integration of J&K with India, while being critically important for national security, is perhaps the most ambitious IR rail project ever. But lackadaisical progress reflects poorly on IR’s credentials in executing and implementing large projects.

Yet, focused work in the past year has left only some hiccups related to a three km tunnel near Katra and the construction of Anji bridge. The first Delhi-Srinagar train is expected to run sometime next summer.

In 2014 the Modi government secured the first ever High-Speed Rail project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, intending to complete it by 2021. The goal post kept shifting, however, due to non-cooperation between the Centre and Maharashtra governments.

With a friendly government at the helm since mid-2022, this year has seen vigorous progress. While opening the line partly between Surat and Ahmedabad seems meaningless, it is expected that the entire line should be operational by 2028-29. India needs at least a couple of HSRs; whether it suits our needs or not should be debated only after building some lines.

Vande Bharat success

Another welcome development has been large-scale deployment of Vande Bharat trains. The year began with a mere six in service, but will end with nearly 50 of them, changing the very landscape of higher-end travel in India. The excellent or fair patronage of most of these trains shows that there is a clear space for fast and comfortable trains even with higher fare.

But this also brings out the negatives of the year. Some of the Vande Bharat trains were deployed on political merit; these trains run with poor occupancy, e.g., Bhopal-Jabalpur and Bhopal-Indore as they fail to cut travel time. The power given to zones to cut fare in case of poor occupancy is a fruitless exercise. Deployment should be made after traffic surveys.

This would be even more important in 2024 as the sleeper version is badly-delayed. Continued deployment of day trains may not find takers. It also raises the question of track upgrade to higher speeds. Work on raising the speed of Delhi-Howrah and Delhi-Mumbai sections to 160 kmph has seen tardy progress. The Balasore accident dented IR’s safety record, which had otherwise shown improvement in the last five years with the closure of all unmanned railway crossings and improvements in track maintenance. It was followed by at least four more accidents with fatalities and injuries; Delhi-Kamakhya Express derailment near Buxar, fire cases in Patalkot Express near Agra and Delhi-Darbhanga Superfast Express near Etawah and the collision of two trains near Vizianagaram.

Safety paramount

The focus in 2024 must shift strongly to improving safety of rail travel, including track and signalling upgrades. Money is not the problem; the Centre has been infusing huge capex in IR.

On the issue of signalling why is the progress of installation of Kavach, a unique system developed by IR engineers, so slow? Is it due to the confounding stand of the Ministry that the efforts to expedite the deployment of Kavach were hampered by industrial capacity constraints? The responsibility of creating capacities through a partnership with industry rests with IR and such excuses will never work if IR’s safety record has to improve.

IR is given to unnecessary hype like greening of its operation through electrification. But it is silent on the fate of more than 500 diesel locomotives, on the need for ‘hydrogen trains’ amidst electrification, and on the requirement for airport-like stations, when basic functionalities are generally found wanting. The recent announcement to add 3,000 passenger trains to eliminate waiting lists needs to take saturated capacities into account.

The crying need is to make travel comfortable for the common man, if India has to attain any semblance of a developed country.

A great IR self-goal has been the dismal roll-out of IRMS, the unified service to banish departmentalism. The cure has turned out to be worse than the disease. While internecine cut-throat continues at the highest levels with department-based appointments, IRMS at the entry level is the lowest choice among Civil Services aspirants. Only 90 out of 150 vacancies could be filled up, as many candidates likely to qualify choose another service.

Last but perhaps the most important, is financial performance. In an economy growing nearly 7 per cent, one would expect rail freight and total revenue to expand at a minimum of 10 per cent. All it seems to be achieving is between 3-4 per cent, leaving no surplus for meeting investments, which implies increased reliance on the Centre for the same.

The question is: In 2024 can IR work with a strong sense of purpose, riding on initiatives like Gati Shakti to improve its loading and revenue performance significantly?

The writer is Retd. GM, Indian Railways, creator of Train 18/Vande Bharat and Independent Rail Consultant

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