Railways, India: 1
(→Ticketless travel) |
(→Cleanest trains) |
||
| Line 289: | Line 289: | ||
Admitting that cleanliness of toilets in train is the most difficult task, an official said on an average each toilet is used 60 times in a day. In the Shatabdi trains category, passenger feedback was on average 243 primarily on the parameters of “cleanliness of toilets”. In the case of Duronto trains, passengers gave it a low score of 207 for the same reason. | Admitting that cleanliness of toilets in train is the most difficult task, an official said on an average each toilet is used 60 times in a day. In the Shatabdi trains category, passenger feedback was on average 243 primarily on the parameters of “cleanliness of toilets”. In the case of Duronto trains, passengers gave it a low score of 207 for the same reason. | ||
| + | |||
| + | =Comparison with other countries' railways= | ||
| + | ==1952, 2001, 2012/ China== | ||
| + | [[File:How Indian Railways fell behind railways in China, 1952, 2001, 2012.jpg|How Indian Railways fell behind railways in China, 1952, 2001, 2012; <br/> Source: [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Gallery.aspx?id=02_02_2017_010_029_002&type=P&artUrl=INDIAN-RAILWAYS-IS-FIGHTING-THREE-LOSING-BATTLES-02022017010029&eid=31808 ''The Times of India''], Feb 2, 2017|frame|500px]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''See graphic''': | ||
| + | |||
| + | ''How Indian Railways fell behind railways in China, 1952, 2001, 2012'' | ||
=Crime on Indian Railways= | =Crime on Indian Railways= | ||
Revision as of 22:28, 21 March 2019
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
History
India’s 1st train: When Sahib, Sindh & Sultan blew steam
The Times of India APRIL 18 | 1853
India’s first passenger train was flagged off on its maiden run between Bori Bunder (later Victoria Terminus, now Chhatrapati Shiva ji Terminus) and Thane — a distance of 21 miles covered in 57 minutes, at 3.35pm on April 16, 1853. Drawn by three engines, Sahib, Sindh and Sultan, the train lurched forward amid fanfare and celebration.
TOI exulted: “Nothing could’ve been more magnificent than the train of 20 enormous carriages with their three stupendous engines, all spick and span new, with the most perfect forms engineering could suggest, and the most beautiful tints taste could impart, occupying a line from first to last on close to four hundred feet.”
The inaugural report noted with pride, “The 16th of April 1853 was, and would long continue to be one of the most memorable days, if not the most memorable day, in the annals of British India.”
“This was not the triumph of nation over nation, of race over race, of man over his fellow man. It was the triumph of mind of matter, of patience and perseverance,” the report quoted a British official at the inaugural function.
Earlier reports and advertisements in the paper had added to the rapidly building excitement over the train’s maiden run. An advertisement on April 8, 1853 quoted traffic manager Roche saying this to prospective riders. “The public are respectfully informed that on Monday, and until further notice, trains will be dispatched daily at the hours and fares named in the annexed table. First class day tickets for the double journey only on the day of issue will be given between Bombay, Tannah and Mahim at three-fourths of the ordinary fare.”
TRACK SETTING | Plans for a rail system in India were first put forward in 1832 and the Madras Presidency got the first experimental railway line.
In 1844, governor general Hardinge allowed private entrepreneurs to set up a rail system if they guaranteed an annual return of up to 5% in the initial years. The first passenger train was the product of efforts of Parsi businessman Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy and Nana Shankarsheth, who formed the Indian Railway Association. This eventually merged into the Great Indian Peninsula Railway. Jejeebhoy and Shankarseth were the only two Indian directors in the 10-member board. TNN
Milestones in the history of Indian Railways
The Times of India Feb 27 2015
Rail recall
Conditioned air
First extensive air conditioning system was used to cool first class coaches of the most famous train of the British Raj. In 1934 Frontier Mail became India's first train to have air conditioning. Large blocks of ice were placed beneath the car's containers. A battery operated fan would blow the air that was then made to enter the insulated coach through vents. The ice was replenished at major halts to keep the system running.The first fully AC train was introduced between Howrah and Delhi in 1956.
Inspirational train
Indian railways were one of three technological breakthroughs of the late 19th Century that inspired Jules Verne to write his famous adventure novel `Around the World in 80 days'. The other two were first transcontinental railroad in America and the Suez Canal.
Long and short of it
Odisha's Ib railway station holds the record of having the shortest name Andhra's Venkatanarasimharajuvaripeta is the longest name of any railway station
Spanning India
Vivek Express between Kanyakumari and Dibrugarh has the longest run. The 4,286 km journey is longer than the 3,715 km route of the Himsagar Express which held the crown of running on India's longest route.
Last on the lane
Baramulla is the last station of northernmost railways.Naliya is the westernmost, Kanyakumari southernmost and Ledo is easternmost
Fast train, Delhi to Agra
See graphic
Gatimaan, fast train from Delhi to Agra
Longest rail journeys
See graphic.
Fairy Queen, world's oldest steam engine
Jasjeev Gandhiok, World's oldest engine gathers fresh steam, Feb 12 2017: The Times of India
The world's oldest steam engine -Fairy Queen -returned to the tracks on Saturday in Feb 2017 after a gap of nearly five years. The engine was attached to a heritage train running from Delhi Cantt to Rewari in Haryana.This under three-hour round trip with passengers will be done every month.
Fairy Queen was restored and brought to Delhi in 1977 when the National Rail Museum was built and since then has been a part of the museum.
Passengers will get to visit the Rewari locomotive museum where a number of engines have been kept along with the sheds where many of these engines are still in operation.
Up to 60 passengers can take a heritage ride and can also see a working steam shed in Rewari,“ said Uday Singh Mina, director, National Rail Museum.
According to officials, a round-trip will cost Rs 6,480 per passenger. “The response has been good as many took a ride to Rewari and back. Fares for children are also half and we encourage people to take part in this experience,“ said Mina.
Fairy Queen became a part of the Guinness book records in 1998 as the world's oldest steam engine that was still in operation. It was restored in 1997 for a special ride between Delhi to Alwar. “Several tourists took part in that ride as the train was brought back to operations after 88 years. It had been operational till 2011 before certain parts went missing and work was undergoing to restore it again,“ said an official.
First indigenously built F-1/734 Steam Locomotive
Shoeb Khan, Oldest locomotive: Built in Ajmer, pride of Delhi, Aug 3, 2017: The Times of India
JAIPUR: United India's first indigenously built F-1/734 Steam Locomotive in 1877 by the Ajmer Locomotive workshop is the only showpiece in the National Rail Museum in New Delhi to be taken care off by the staff of Ajmer locomotive.
The locomotive was built by a team of British engineers. It remained operational till 1938 on a route from Delhi to Ahmedabad and Delhi to Indore. Its manufacturing cost was Rs 15,369.
The Ajmer Workshop is one of the oldest railway Workshop set up in British India, Established in 1877. This workshop continued to make locomotives till the end of Second World War and has made 436 locomotives. The locomotive painted in original black livery with bold R.M.R. inscriptions in brass requires tools for its maintenance available in Ajmer. The 38.25 tonne 0-6-0 wheel arrangement locomotive is equipped with 'Stephenson valve gear' and inside connecting rods. Prior to F-1/734, the locomotives were brought from England and assembled in Ajmer Locomotive workshop.
RK Moondra, chief workshop manager, Ajmer who is also holding the charge of the upkeep of the first locomotive of the workshop. He says, "It requires the utmost attention to save it from rust and corrode. Besides painting, we have changed plates which get damage due to rust." The biggest challenge the staff face is the unavailability of the spare parts. They have been managing by creating parts in the workshop.
The F-1/734 Steam Locomotive is survival only by chance. Most of the locomotives built in the 20th century either have sold in the scrap market or have collapsed. This locomotive after its retirement was kept at pedestal on the insistence by those engineers and staff which had served their lives in its maintenance. Its original design and other documents have lost due to no provision of preserving old records in railways.
Tarun Jain, chief public relations officer of the North Western Railway (NWR), said, "The oldest locomotive symbolizes the pride and sense of service NWR have been rendering since its inception. The NWR realizes the importance of its heritage structures and locomotives is the reason that they are undergoing many changes keeping an eye for future." Prior to the setting up of the museum, this locomotive was kept on a pedestal outside the loco workshop at Ajmer. The building of locomotive at Ajmer was a "First" for Indian Railways. It was used on the Rajputana Malwa Railway (also known as Rajputana State Railway before 1882). It ran from Delhi to Indore and up to Ahmadabad, and later on B.B. & C.I. Railway for mixed traffic (passenger and goods).
Facts and myths about Indian Railways
Indian Railways: 5 myths and facts, Aug 22, 2017: The Times of India
HIGHLIGHTS
Under attack after the Utkal Express derailment, the railway ministry issued a statement emphasizing that it is not stinting on safety measures and claimed that there has been a decline in the number of train accidents during the NDA regime. Here are 5 facts shared by the ministry, which will bust your misconceptions regarding the Indian Railways.
Myth #1: Number of Railways accidents and fatalities have increased under Suresh Prabhu.
Reality: The consequential train accidents have continuously declined from 135 in 2014-15 to 107 in 2015-16 and further to 104 in 2016-17. To state a comparison, the average annual accidents during UPA I were 207 per year, during UPA II were 135 per year and during current government have reduced to 115 per year. Although every human life is invaluable and is irreparable loss to us but the number of casualties have also seen a declining trend. Total fatalities in first 3 years of UPA I were 759, they increased to 938 during UPA II, while the first three years of this government has seen the number decline to 652.
Myth #2: Railways has lost focus on safety.
Reality: Safety remains one of the prime concerns and priorities for the Ministry.
1. When this government took over, analysis revealed that 40 per cent of the accidents and 60 per cent of fatalities were due to accidents on Unmanned level crossings. Hence, Mission Zero Accident was launched to ensure all Unmanned level crossings were eliminated by 2019. It has seen unprecedented success, where we eliminated 4258 UMLCs in last 3 years, leading to drop in fatalities from UMLC accidents from 64 per cent of total fatalities in 2013-14 to 16.81 per cent in 2016-17.
2. State of infrastructure is an important constituent to safety performance. The infrastructure had been deteriorating due to years of neglect, which requires huge investments. Investment in safety have increased from Rs 33972 Crore per year during UPA II to Rs54031 Crore every year under this government a jump of 60 per cent.
3. Congestion on tracks also has some impact on safety. Reduction in congestion is achieved by infrastructure upgradation which again requires huge capital expenditure. We have been working this regard also. Under this government, by the end of year we would be spending about Rs 4 lakh crore on infrastructure creation. In last 67 years since independence (1947- 2014) capital investment of Rs 4.9 lakh crore was made on Indian Railways.
4. In 2017-18, a Fund namely 'Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh' (RRSK) has been created for financing critical safety related works. The Fund has been created with a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore over a period of five years.
5. Decision to stop production of ICF coaches, the main stay of Indian Raiwlays Passenger Business for many years, and having no anti climbing features was taken in 2015-16.
6. Existing stock of 40,000 ICF coaches (90 per cent of total coaches) cannot be discarded and hence is being retrofitted with CBC couplers to make them safer.
7. New technologies like Condition based monitoring system for rolling stock and Track and Ultrasonic Broken Rail Detection System are being piloted on the network.
Myth #3: Number of vacancies in safety positions has increased recently leading to a spurt in accidents.
Reality: Average vacancy in safety positions during the period 2009-10 to 2013-14 was 18.65 per cent of total sanctioned strength. This has dropped down to 16.86 per cent in 2017 despite the sanctioned strength increasing by 5 per cent from 2014 to 2017. Further, during the current government we have recruited almost 37,510 people in the safety categories taking the total staff strength to 635940 on 1.04.2017. Massive recruitments of almost 2,00,000 staff in these categories are also lined up .
Myth #4: Railways has been dragging its feet to implement Kakodkar Committee recommendations.
Reality: High Level Safety Review Committee had made 106 recommendations on various aspects of railway's working. Out of 106, 68 recommendations have been fully accepted out of which 52 have been fully implemented and 16 are under implementation. 19 recommendations were partially accepted out of which 13 have been implemented. 19 recommendations were not accepted by the Railways.
Myth #5: Railways has diverted funds to develop fancy projects like Bullet Train.
Reality: Indian Railways has unflinching commitment to the poor and the downtrodden as can be seen by a few examples:
1.Passenger fares are still amongst the lowest in the entire world. In fact, Indian Railways subsidises passenger and suburban travel to the tune of almost Rs 36,000 crore annually.
2.Antyodaya express - fully unreserved, super-fast trains with enhanced amenities such as drinking water, vestibule trains, LHB coaches etc were launched only to cater to unreserved segment.
3. Re 1 clinics were launched at important suburban stations
4. Indian Railways ensures availability of Janta meals at all major stations
High speed train from Mumbai to Ahmedabad is being funded by Japan government with less than 20 per cent contribution from Government of India. This money, which came at incredibly attractive terms (0.1 per cent rate of interest) was made available only for this high-speed project and was not available to fund safety projects for Indian Railways. Moreover, high speed train is the safest mode of transport in the world. Hence, the government has not diverted any funds from existing corpus.
Tracks and Milestones
Srinath Perur , Railways “India Today” 31/7/2017
The first train ride in India wasn't the celebrated Bori Bunder to Thane run of 1853; it was in 1837, on the Red Hill Railroad that operated in Chintadripet, near Chennai. So we learn from Indian Railways, whose authors met on a Railways committee and later found themselves commissioned to write an 'anecdotal history' of the Indian Railways, from the 1830s to Independence. Early debates, reproduced from archives, are particularly absorbing. Would combining irrigation and transport through waterways be more appropriate for India? Would Indians take to train travel, given their divisions? How should the railways be paid for?
Over the next century, dozens of railway companies were formed, princely states laid their own tracks and these routes were eventually consolidated into the Indian Railways. The book runs briskly through railway gauges, the naming of locomotives, tunnels that don't meet in the middle, a double murder on a train, A.H. Wheeler and, of course, Gandhi, but slows down at times, as with an 11-page table on 'Evolution of Policies and Committees'. Written as part of a series, The Story of Indian Business, it is particularly informative and accessible on the economic history of the Indian Railways.
"To visualise the Indian Railways in representation has probably become more gratifying than experiencing a journey in its compartments," says Arup K. Chatterjee in The Purveyors of Destiny. The book is a profile of the railways through its appearance in culture, books, travel accounts, architecture, cinema, music, food, tea and even the texture of our nostalgia. It conjures up a rail-window view of that period of Indian history: the railways as a mark of British superiority, as a line of defence after the 1857 uprising, as a chain-pulling, fund-collecting arena for the Independence movement, as a vehicle for horrific images of Partition and then as a source of national pride. The analysis is at times heavy-handedly academic, a lot of reification and metonymy, and at times delightfully revelatory. Take the idea of the Pamban bridge, at the southernmost tip of the mainland. From 1914 to 2010, it was India's longest sea bridge, built under the British, but with Indian labour. Chatterjee says it "recapitulated the building of the Ram Setu". So, in a way, this modern bridge always existed, making it an easy national symbol.
Whoever built it, we know who rebuilt the Pamban bridge after it was washed away in 1964. It was a team led by E. Sreedharan, civil engineer, technocrat and seemingly the only person in India to finish projects on time and within budget, and now the subject of a biography by Rajendra Aklekar. The symbolic value of Pamban bridge meant that there was immense pressure to rebuild it quickly. Sreedharan was summoned from a holiday and given three months, not enough time to fabricate the steel girders required. He decided to reuse the old girders that had sunk in the sea. The efforts of local fishermen and Mapilla Khalasi boat builders and specialised equipment designed by Sreedharan saw the bridge rebuilt in 46 days.
India's Railway Man takes us through Sreedharan's other successes, the Konkan Railway, the Calcutta, Delhi and Kochi metros, and introduces us to the man and his work ethic. Aklekar is self-effacing as a biographer and readily hands over parts of the book: first-person accounts by Sreedharan; a note from his daughter; 20 pages on Sreedharan by his spiritual guru; praise and criticism by his colleagues. Like a railway compartment, the book accommodates many voices.
Accidents
2009-15
See graphic:
Rail accidents in India: 2009-March 2015
Baggage allowance
The rules, since the 1980s
From: Mahendra Singh, Soon, excess baggage may cost train passengers dear, June 6, 2018: The Times of India
Just like air travel, carrying excess luggage while travelling in trains is going to cost passengers dear as they may have to pay a hefty penalty with the railway board deciding to strictly enforce it’s around 30-year-old baggage allowance norm.
The board has decided to run a campaign to implement the rule after getting numerous complaints regarding excess baggage in train compartments causing inconvenience to travellers.
Travellers are allowed to carry luggage beyond the free allowance with them in the compartment up to the maximum limit prescribed as per class on payment of charge at 1.5 times of luggage rate. The excess luggage would have to be put in the luggage van. However, a penalty which would be six times the luggage rate will be imposed in case of non-disclosure of extra luggage by the passenger. Officials said railways will carry out random checks on passengers.
The transporter has launched a special drive (June 1-6) across all its zones to enforce the rules. “As of now, we are creating awareness among passengers and not imposing fines. Passengers are allowed to book and carry excess luggage on the payment of a fee equivalent to 1.5 times the luggage rate,” said Ved Prakash, director, information and publicity, railway board.
Though the move is aimed at ensuring comfortable journey, it may further dent the image of the transporter, already under criticism due to train delays.
Budget and finances: Railways
2007-10: Discrepancies in railways’ net revenue surplus
Mahendra Kumar Singh TNN The Times of India, Aug 6, 2011
Former rail minister Lalu Prasad’s turnaround of railways from a loss-making to a profit venture was more of a cosmetic exercise, reveals the government auditor’s report.
According to CAG, it was the new practice of issuing a “statement of cash and investible surplus” that helped Lalu project a rosy picture. The auditor has said the innovation helped the former railway minister project a “cash and investible surplus” of Rs 88,669 crore from 2004-2005 to 2008-2009 when the net revenue surplus was only Rs 34,506 crore.
Railways calculated the net revenue surplus after meeting all expenditures, including payment of dividend and appropriation to depreciation reserve fund (DRF) used for renewal or replacement of existing assets.
The ‘cash surplus’ in new presentation indicated the sum generated by railways from operations and other activities, including the interest on fund balance. It shows the money available for paying dividend, appropriation to DRF and other funds for investment. The “investible surplus” was expected to indicate the resources generated annually for capital expenditure after fulfilling the dividend liability.
CAG endorsed the white paper presented by Lalu’s successor Mamata Banerjee in Parliament, which questioned the turnaround story, and pointed out, “this was not accounting change but more in nature of presentation of financial projections from different perspective.”
However, the railways’ finances became worse during Mamata’s tenure as the net revenue surplus saw a sharp decline from Rs 13,431 crore in 2007-08 to Rs 4,457 crore in 2008-09 to a paltry Rs 75 lakh in 2009-10.
Though, CAG mentioned that the poor state of affairs was due to the implementation of the sixth pay commission, which was Rs 37,472 crore during 2008-10, it also blamed the lower growth rate in traffic receipts and increase in working expense.
“During 2009-10, the gross traffic receipt increased by 9%, whereas ordinary working expense grew by 21% over the previous year,” the report cited. Railways efficiency measured by operating ratio (percentage of working expenses to traffic earnings) declined to 95.28% in 2009-10 from 90.46% achieved in the previous year.
Out of 16 zonal railways, eight had operating ratio of more than 100%, which means that their working expenditure was more than traffic earnings. The report reflects that the performance of the railways declined marginally during the last leg of Lalu’s tenure and further worsened when Mamata was at its helm.
Exclusive Railway budgeting to end in 2017
The Times of India, Aug 13, 2016
Mahendra Singh
There will be no separate railway budget from financial year 2017-18, putting an end to a practice that started in 1924, with the finance ministry agreeing to the proposal to merge the transporter's annual exercise with the general budget. Government sources told that the finance ministry has constituted a five-member committee of officers to work out the modalities for the exercise, which will end the annual budget speech+ , often followed closely for project announcements, by the railway minister. The move is significant as in recent years, particularly since coalition governments post-1996, political heavyweights have used the railway budget to hand out goodies and for their own image building. With the railway portfolio often held by regional biggies, the budget reflected political priorities of the incumbent. The railway bureaucracy has also dug in its heels in the past.
Railway minister Suresh Prabhu+ 's readiness to give up the limelight is a break from the past as BJP seems in a position to dump the railway budget as its solid majority in Lok Sabha enabled it to retain the portfolio rather than handing it to an ally.
Once the rail budget is merged with the general budget, railways will be like any other government department that receives budgetary support but comes under the finance ministry's oversight as far as spending and earnings are concerned.
Once the overall funds are allocated, railways will then segregate them for various purposes with sources indicating that the model will be similar to the one for the postal department.
Bridges
‘British-era bridges were better:’ parliamentary panel, 2018
British-era bridges were better: Panel, February 10, 2018: The Times of India
In a stinging remark, a parliamentary panel has said some British-era rail bridges are in a better condition than the ones built after Independence and blamed the nexus between officials and contractors for the poor quality of construction.
The Public Accounts Committee headed by Congress’ Mallikarjun Kharge, who was railway minister during the UPA-II regime, said delay in sanctioning bridgework is putting lives of passengers at risk. “The committee noted that while certain railway bridges constructed during the British rule are in good condition, railway bridges constructed or reconstructed after Independence are of inferior quality and need frequent repair,” said the report ‘Maintenance of Bridges in Indian Railway’ tabled in Parliament.
It added, “Nexus between railway officials and few contractors affect the quality and life of its construction.”
The panel suggested that tender for construction or rehabilitation of bridges be done through e-tendering so as to make the system transparent and attract large number of reputed and competent construction companies in the tendering process.
It also said companies or contractors who fail to ensure quality and long life of bridges be debarred from participating in future tenders and penalised for it.
The committee expressed shock that out of the 3,979 bridges sanctioned by the Railway Board, work on 710 bridges remains to be completed as on March 2015.
According to a Railway Board letter in October 2017, the Central Railways has 61 bridges that need repair, East Central Railways has 63, South Central Railways has 41 and Western Railways has 42 bridges requiring rebuilding.
The committee noted that while paucity of funds was cited as a reason for shortfall in achievement of targets for bridgeworks, the budget grant provided was not utilised to the tune of nearly Rs 61 crore per annum.
“The committee has desired that a strategic management system be developed for fast tracking sanction of rehabilitation or reconstruction of bridges within a time frame based on priority for safety,” the report stated.
Cash boxes
Kakori and other history
From: Urooj Khan, Rly’s British-era cash boxes of Kakori fame to become history, September 8, 2018: The Times of India
The iconic cast iron cash boxes used by the Railways to ferry daily revenue for nearly a century are soon set to become history. The use of the heavy boxes, painted orange, in vogue for the past 93 years, will be discontinued from September 15 in Northern Railway’s Lucknow division.
The division on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding with the State Bank of India for collection by cash van and subsequent online transfer to the divisional headquarters.
The cast iron boxes, once looted by revolutionaries Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaq Ullah Khan and their associates in Kakori, will be put on display at the rail museum.
British officials used to collect daily revenue from various railway stations of the then United Provinces for government treasury. The money was then dispatched to the divisional office in the heavy, highly secure cash boxes.
During one such journey on August 9, 1925, when a train from Saharanpur to Lucknow neared Kakori station, Khan, Bismil, Thakur Roshan Singh, Sachindra Bakshi and their associates pulled the chain and looted the money which was then used to buy arms for freedom fighters. The box had Rs 4,600 in a leather bag. The daring robbery was organised by Hindustan Republican Association.
Cleanest trains
Dipak Dash, January 20, 2019: The Times of India
From: Dipak Dash, January 20, 2019: The Times of India
Three Shatabdi trains, including Pune-Secunderabad and Howrah-Ranchi, are the cleanest among 77 premium trains that were surveyed last year by railways while three Duronto trains finished last. Among 23 Rajdhani trains, Mumbai-New Delhi Rajdhani was ranked the cleanest while New Delhi-Dibrugarh was at the bottom.
The ‘Train Cleanliness Survey 2018’, covering 210 trains categorised premium and non-premium, indicate passengers rating all trains poorly on two parameters — cleanliness of toilets and inadequate cleaning of coaches. The survey results, which included feedback of over 15,000 passengers, has not been made public so far while the ranking of stations on Swachhta parameters have been publicised by the government. Railway ministry spokesperson said the report was not published since there were some issues with the modalities of the survey and it is being reworked.
This was the first such survey by the environment and housekeeping management wing of railways. The assessment methodology included process audit, direct observation and passenger feedback. Passenger feedback was aimed at assessing the perception on a scale of zero to five and this included cleanliness of toilets, working of housekeeping staff, cleanliness of bed rolls, effectiveness of pest management, availability and cleanliness dustbins.
Admitting that cleanliness of toilets in train is the most difficult task, an official said on an average each toilet is used 60 times in a day. In the Shatabdi trains category, passenger feedback was on average 243 primarily on the parameters of “cleanliness of toilets”. In the case of Duronto trains, passengers gave it a low score of 207 for the same reason.
Comparison with other countries' railways
1952, 2001, 2012/ China
Source: The Times of India, Feb 2, 2017
See graphic:
How Indian Railways fell behind railways in China, 1952, 2001, 2012
Crime on Indian Railways
2011-14
See graphic:
Crime on Indian Railways: 2011-14, year-wise
Crossings (level railway crossings)
Elimination of perilous crossings
From: Mahendra Singh, April 29, 2018: The Times of India
See graphic:
The number of unmanned railway crossings eliminated, year-wise, 2014-18
Isro: Trial of sat-based warning system - satisfactory
From: Surendra Singh, Isro: Trial of sat-based warning system at unmanned rly crossings satisfactory, May 28, 2018: The Times of India
The trial of a satellite-based early warning system about approaching trains at unmanned level crossings has been completed by the railways, a top official of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) said.
Speaking to TOI, Ahmedabadbased Space Applications Centre (SAC) director Tapan Misra said, “The one-year phase-1 trial of the satellite-based early warning system is over. Its performance has been satisfactory.” Under a pilot project, the railways had last year installed Isro-developed integrated circuit (IC) chips on some train engines. The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (or NaVIC) was used to caution road users at crossings about approaching trains through hooters installed at these crossings. On its efficiency, Misra said, “The satellite-based technology was tested under different terrains and tough climatic conditions throughout the year. Its smooth functioning shows it is an all-weather system.”
TOI first reported about the pilot project in November 2017 as how the railways had installed IC chips on five train engines on different routes. The test has been going on since June 2017 to check if the system is reliable. Misra said, “After developing the system, we transferred the hardware technology to four companies for limited production for the pilot project.”
Research Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO), R&D wing of the railways, submitted its report to the Railway Board after the trial concluded. RDSO, in its report, said though the Isro technology has worked satisfactorily, it wants certain modifications before its rollout. Moreover, the railways has to sort out issues of vandalism and theft of the system first. There are about 5,792 unmanned crossings till date, which account for 40% of railways accidents.
2018: 3,000 unmanned crossings eliminated in 7 months
Rlys eliminates 3k unmanned crossings in 7 mths, just 77 left, November 3, 2018: The Times of India
Accidents at unmanned level crossings, 2009-18
From: Rlys eliminates 3k unmanned crossings in 7 mths, just 77 left, November 3, 2018: The Times of India
The railways have eliminated a large number of unmanned level crossings over broad gauge lines as it stepped up its drive to enhance safety across the network.
Latest data showed that 3,402 unmanned level crossings had been eliminated in the last seven months. There were 3,479 unmanned crossing and the state-run transport behemoth plans to get rid of the remaining 77 by the end of December.
By the elimination of unamanned crossings on war footing, accidents have reduced from 65 in 2009-10 to 3 in 2018-19.
“Indian Railway has taken a mission area to eliminate all unmanned level crossings (UMLCs) on broad gauge and special efforts have been made so that elimination can be completed at the earliest,” a statement from the state transporter said. It said most of the unmanned level crossings have been eliminated either by building a subway, road over bridges or by posting personnel to man the gate.
It also said all unmanned level crossings on routes where speed is over 130 km per hour and on sub-urban routes have been eliminated. The elimination of ULMCs have been undertaken in 12 zonal railways and all of them are now free from unmanned level crossings.
The railways have been working on a plan to advance the deadline of March 2020 to eliminate unmanned railways crossings from its network.
2018>2019: unmanned level crossings eliminated
How Rlys put men at 11 level crossings a day, February 3, 2019: The Times of India
From: How Rlys put men at 11 level crossings a day, February 3, 2019: The Times of India
Indian railways did away with at least 11of its thousands of unmanned level crossings every day during the past 10 months to eliminate these death traps, reports Dipak Dash.
The last such crossing on broad-gauge lines was converted into a gated one in Allahabad on Thursday, the same day railway minister Piyush Goyal confirmed in his budget speech that these unmanned crossings were a thing of the past.
‘2018 school van accident put manned crossing project on a war footing’
According to railway ministry officials, an accident on April 16, 2018 involving a school van at such a crossing on Kaptanganj-Thawe section in UP that claimed 13 lives was the turning point for putting the focus on quickly doing away with these crossings.
“The ministry had told the Parliament these crossings would be a thing of past by March 2020. But work on a war footing was undertaken to complete the task earlier after the accident,” said an official. The number of accidents at unmanned level crossings has been at an all-time low at only three during this fiscal as compared to 65 in 2009-10.
Sources said in most of the cases either mechanised or manual system of operating gates have been operationalised to stop vehicles from crossing the tracks when trains go past these spots. They added at some crossing, they have route relay interlocking system where the rail traffic flow is higher.
Officials said the railways had zeroed down on four models to eliminate the crossings including merger with another level crossing by constructing diversion road, construction of subway or rail under bridge and manning. The last option was found to be most cost effective and less time taking. Building rail under and over bridges often require land acquisition and other permissions.
“At all manned crossings, the attendants have been deployed who work in shifts and they have been trained properly for the operational responsibilities. The activities involved in manning were provision of gate hut/porta cabins, lifting barrier/ swing gates, telephones and preparation of engineering plan to name a few,” a railway spokesperson said.
He added for timely elimination of UMLCs all general managers were empowered to take decision such as tendering system, grant traffic blocks, speed restriction, sanction of work and technical decisions regarding manning and interlocking.
Moreover, railways deployed ex-servicemen after proper training. “Till removal of all UMLCs, Gate Mitras were deployed at all these spots to counsel the road users,” said an official.
Railway minister Piyush Goyal on Friday had said safety remains the primary focus of the national transporter.
‘Encroachments’ on railways’ land
2015-16
See graphic:
Railway land under encroachment, 2015-16
2019: Delhi HC’s caveat and railways’ plan
2019: Delhi HC’s caveat and railways’ plan
From: Jasjeev Gandhiok, Delhi: Relief for squatters puts many plans off track..., March 21, 2019: The Times of India
From October 2018 to March 2019, the Northern Railways has removed 2,065 illegal structures erected along the tracks in the city. It says there are almost 27,500 such encroachments within 15 metres of the tracks and over 43,000 on railway property afield.
There is bound to be a temporary halt to the campaign, however, with Delhi high court ordering that slum dwellers should be removed only after putting in place measures for their rehabilitation. This has put the Railways’ plans on a coach facility at Shakur Basti in jeopardy, and a meeting will be convened soon to discuss this and the long-term anti-encroachment drive.
“Encroachments have always been a sensitive issue,” admitted a railway official. “While we have been fencing off the track in the last few months, we will have to have a relook at the approach. For the present, only those structures that are a hazard to rail operations will be removed.”
At Shakur Basti, the plan was to create a new coach terminal facility on the same lines as that of Anand Vihar. Construction began in 2017, but less than half the work has been completed because a major portion of the project area has been encroached upon and the completion of the facility will be possible only if the jhuggi clusters are removed.
“At present, trains are serviced at the Old Delhi and New Delhi railway stations. The idea is to use the new complex at Shakur Basti for such operations in the hope that this will allow better efficiency and turnover,” an official explained. So essentially, the coaching facility is aimed at reducing the burden on the two major stations by facilitating the halting of transit trains at Shakur Basti for servicing and washing before being deployed for fresh operations.
R N Singh, divisional railway manager, Delhi division, said some key projects at a number of locations are in limbo, much like Shakur Basti. The task of removing illegal occupants has become more difficult with the recent Delhi government policy mandating the payment of Rs 18 lakh per jhuggi cleared. “Earlier, this amount was Rs 80,000 but it has been significantly raised,” said Singh. “This means we cannot remove all of them. That is why we looked at fencing as an option. We are also discussing how to deal with the other highly encroached areas.”
The engines
Diesel vis-à-vis electric: 2017
From: April 5, 2018: The Times of India
See graphic:
The number of diesel and electric engines in use, presumably in 2017
Freight corridor, Dedicated railway-
Land compensation issues: 2016
Rail Project Battles Compensation Claims
The dedicated railway freight corridor has finally managed to award all contracts for the Dadri-Mumbai link over 11years after the flagship infrastructure project was announced. But on the eastern front -that will connect Ludhiana with Dankuni in West Bengal -nearly 10% of the land, which is close to 450 hectare, is yet to be acquired even as funding has now been tied up.
For the Rs 81,450 crore project, land acquisition and clearances have been the biggest headache so far. The project needed around 11,600 hectare -6,000 hectare for the western and 4,587 hectare for the eastern stretch. While it was battling court cases and arbitration, a third blow came by the way of the new land acquisition cost, which pushed up the average price from around Rs 1.3 crore a hectare to around Rs 2 crore -an increase of around 54%. Project cost has also been increased as the land acquisition cost rose 75% from the budgeted level of around Rs 8,000 crore to nearly Rs 14,000 crore now . This could go up further depending of the arbitration awards.
In recent years, land acquisition has been a major headache for most infrastructure projects -highways, railways, power generation and special economic zones (SEZs). In several cases, the projects needed to be reworked, if not shelved.
The corridors running across 3,360 km are aimed at building electrified railway system to enable each train to carry a load of up to 13,000 tonnes -which is the load carried by 1,300 trucks. On each corridor, Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) is laying double lines, which will treble the average speed of the double-stack goods trains from 25 kmhour to 75 kmhour.While the western leg is funded by Japanese agency JICA, eastern stretch is financed by the World Bank.
“There is no escalation in the project cost. Whatever increase is there is on account of higher cost of land,“ said DFCCIL managing director Adesh Sharma, adding that the project would be fully ready by 2019-end, a year behind the original deadline.
But, before that it needs to battle nearly 2,000 court cases and over 9,500 arbitration awards, of which nearly half are yet to be disposed off. DFCCIL planned the project in a way that it avoided large cities, where land acquisition was going to be a problem. But, challenges have come mainly from areas around the large cities, where prices are higher and “fertile“ agricultural land is being acquired.
Sample this: Nearly half the arbitration cases that are pending are in Haryana (2,277 out of 4,679 cases). When it comes to court cases, Uttar Pradesh tops the list with 669 out of the 1,020 pending cases.
“Most of the arbitration cases relate to compensation based on the latest registration price. Wherever, there is an award, we are paying higher compensation,“ Sharma said.
Freight Policy
Dual Freight Policy struck down/ 2016
The Hindu, June 29, 2016
Dual freight policy for iron ore goes
In a bid to boost freight traffic volumes, the Indian Railways has abolished its dual freight policy for carrying iron ore, a long-pending demand from industry players.
According to a 2008 policy, the tariff for transportation of iron ore to ports for the purpose of exports is three times the rate charged for transporting the same commodity for domestic use in steel and cement industries.
“The dual pricing policy for iron ore transportation was very complicated. From now on, whether you move the iron ore to the plant or to the ports for exports, we will be charging the same,” Railway Board Member (Traffic) Mohammed Jamshed said on Wednesday. Cheering the move, industry representatives said the freight rationalisation will help both Railways and the iron ore sector. “It is a long-overdue move. We had urged the government to bring parity in rates of iron ore transportation irrespective of point of origin and destination,” said Basant Poddar, vice president at Federation of Indian Mineral Industries. A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report tabled in Parliament last year had pointed out that the freight business suffered losses of around Rs 29,000 crore in 2008-13 due to the dual pricing system for transporting iron ore. It had found that iron ore was carried at lower domestic rates but was diverted for exports resulting in huge losses to the exchequer.
Smart Freight Operation Optimisation & Real Time Information (SFOORTI) Application: to track trains
Both passenger and freight trains can be tracked over Zones/Divisions/ Sections can be viewed through this application.
Position of Rakes for Specific Type of Stock can be viewed through this application.
In a major digital initiative to help plan the traffic flows and optimize freight operations, Ministry of Railways have launched Smart Freight Operation Optimisation & Real Time Information (SFOORTI) App for Freight Managers which provides features for monitoring and managing freight business using Geographic Information System (GIS) Views and Dashboard.
Salient features of SFOORTI Application are as below:
With this application, movement of freight trains on Geographic Information System (GIS) view can be tracked.
Both passenger and freight trains can be tracked over Zones/Divisions/ Sections in single GIS View.
Freight business can be monitored.
Comparative Analysis of Zonal/Divisional Traffic.
Analysis of new traffic captured and traffic lost.
This app provides a Bird’s eye view of all Freight Assets in a single window.
Provides end to end Rake movement on Geospatial view
Expected Traffic at Interchange points to evaluate daily performance can be viewed.
Performance of each zone and divisions with respect to loading and utilization of freight assets can be viewed.
Sectional performance monitoring for sections, divisions and zones shall help in traffic routing.
Freight terminal and sidings can be better monitored to ensure better turnaround of rakes.
Growth, annual
1951-2015
See graphic:
Indian Railways: Annual growth, 1950-51 to 2014-15
High- speed trains
2018: Gatimaan Express
Arvind Chauhan, Gatimaan Exp makes first trip to Gwalior, February 20, 2018: The Times of India
The Delhi-Agra Gatimaan Express, India’s fastest train with a maximum speed of 160kmph, reached Gwalior, the first step in its proposed expansion towards Jhansi and Gwalior. Gatimaan — which covers the 187km run between Delhi’s Nizamuddin and Agra’s Cantt stations, in 100 minutes — completed the 306km journey from Delhi to Gwalior in 3 hours and 15 minutes. The fastest train for the stretch so far was Rajdhani, which takes just under 4 hours.
2018: 180 kmph
Indigenous Train 18 now fastest in India, December 27, 2018: The Times of India
From: Indigenous Train 18 now fastest in India, December 27, 2018: The Times of India
Train 18, an indigenously developed semi-high speed train, officially became the first train in India to cruise at a sustained speed of 180kmph, making it the fastest train in the country, railway minister Piyush Goyal announced.
The chief commissioner of railway safety (CCRS) has given the goahead for the train to run at a maximum speed of 160kmph with certain conditions paving the way for its commercial operation. The conditions include providing “sturdy fencing” all along the track to avoid mishaps.
The CCRS in its communication to the railway board has said, “Railway shall ensure provision of sturdy fencing at vulnerable location on need basis for operation up to 130 kmph. For speed beyond 130 kph and upto 160 kmph, provision of sturdy fencing all along the track shall be ensured.” It has laid down 21 conditions railways must comply with to run at maximum speed of up to 160kmph.
The clearance from CCRS is a pre-requisite for any train with new technology to start service.
Railway ministry sources said the train speed can also go up where the track condition is superior. With a video clip, Goyal tweeted, “Need for Speed: Train 18 seen cruising at 180kmph, officially becoming the fastest train in India.”
The first such train manufactured in India at a cost of about Rs 100 crore is scheduled to ply between Delhi and Varanasi via Allahabad. PM Narendra Modi will flag off the train. The date of starting the service is undecided.
Bullet train
From: February 6, 2019: The Hindu
See graphic:
Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train, some brief details
2019/ accorded wildlife clearance for Thane Creek Flamingo Wildlife Sanctuary and the Sanjay Gandhi National Park
Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan-led panel gives nod.
A committee, chaired by Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan, has accorded wildlife clearance to the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed train corridor that encroaches upon a flamingo sanctuary and the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, the home to leopards, in Mumbai.
The proposal involves diversion of 3.2756 ha of forestland from the Thane Creek Flamingo Wildlife Sanctuary and 97.5189 ha of land close to the boundary of the forest’s protected area.
The project for one of India’s first ‘bullet trains’ was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe in Ahmedabad in September, 2017. It is expected to be ready by 2022.
A wildlife clearance is a critical part of the forest clearance process. A person privy to the process said forest clearance wasn’t part of the original agenda of the meeting.
The TCF in Thane, Mumbai, came into being August 2015 and the 1,690-hectare bird haven — 896 hectares of mangrove forests and 794 hectares of a water-body — is on the western bank of the creek, between the Airoli and the Vashi bridges connecting Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.
Apart from the creek, the proposal also involves diverting 32.75 ha of forestland and 77.30 ha of non-forestland from Sanjay Gandhi National Park and from 0.6902 ha of forestland and 4.7567 ha of non-forest land from Tungareshwar Wildlife Sanctuary.
While according clearance, the National Board of Wildlife-- the apex body tasked with according permissions to allow forest land to be diverted for industrial development-- has laid pre-conditions for the bullet train project. These include paying Rs 10 crore (2% of 500 crore—the component of the project in Mumbai) for habitat improvement of the sanctuary, barricading the work site to ensure that no debris fall outside the project area and ‘…providing site and funds for penal plantation of at least 5 times the number of mangroves plants anticipated to be lost in this project..’
Largely funded by a soft loan by Japan, the Rs 1 trillion Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project has a track-length of 508 km, and will originate at the Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai and terminate at the Sabarmati, in Gujarat. The length across the State of Maharashtra will be 155.64 km 4.3 km across Dadra & Nagar Haveli. The total length across the state of Gujarat would 348.2 km and would pass through the districts of Ahmedabad, Kheda, Anand, Vadodara, Bharuch, Surat, Navsari, and Valsad in Gujarat.
Littering at Indian stations
2013-15
See graphic:
2013 June 2015, Persons penalised for littering at Indian railway stations
Luxury trains
See graphic:
The occupancy rate and tariffs of India’s luxury trains, 2010-11 and 2014-15
Tejas Express
Tejas Express: Fare, safety, route and all one needs to know, May 22, 2017: The Times of India
1. Fully-loaded
The train has got all the ultra-modern amenities like on-board infotainment, wi-fi, CCTV, fire and smoke detection facilities, tea and coffee vending machine etc. General manager of central railway, who inspected the train at the Chhatrapati Shiva-ji Terminus, Mumbai (CSTM) likened Tejas Express with an "aeroplane moving on the ground”.
2. Speed India's first premium train will run at an average speed of 130kmph.
3. Design The train, manufactured at the Rail Coach Factory in Kapurthala, will have automatic entrance door, a first in non-suburban train in Indian railways. The graffiti proof, vinyl-wrapped specially designed exterior has a bright colour theme of orange and yellow. Tejas Express has a dust-proof/sealed inter car gangway. The express will also be pressed into service in Delhi-Chandigarh and Delhi-Lucknow sectors, according to the railways.
4. Route and Schedule The Tejas Express would operate between Mumbai and Karmali (Goa) five days a week during non-monsoon period and three days a week during monsoon by halting at Dadar, Thane, Panvel, Ratnagiri and Kudal stations.
5. Capacity The 20 coach train will have one executive AC chair car with 56 seating capacity and 12 AC chair cars with 78 seat capacity of each coach.
6. Fare Tejas Express's executive class fare is Rs 2,940 (with food) and Rs 2,540 (without food), and for AC chair car the fare has been fixed at Rs 1,850 (with food) and Rs 1,220 (without food). Besides the railways has also planned optional on-board catering services.
7. Safety The high-speed train has all the safety measures like suppression system, fire suppression system, smoke detection and fire detection. A GPS-based passenger information display system and a digital destination board has also been installed for the convenience of the passengers.
8. Braille assistance Tejas Express has also got Braille assistance installed for visually challenged passengers.
9. Cleanliness The train has bio-vacuum toilets facility in all the coaches. It will also have other features like hand dryers, water level indicators and touch-less water taps.
10. Response from public According to central railway, passengers have shown positive response in booking advance trains for the train.
Medical facilities for passengers
Ambulance on rails
Central Railway (CR) unveiled India's first airconditioned rail ambulance that will rush to the aid of injured passengers during the vital `golden hour'.
An accident victim's chances of survival are greatest if treatment is provided within an hour or less, known as the golden hour. The ambulance, which will be stationed at Kalyan, was made by modifying an AC coach used for passenger service.
CR's chief public relations officer Narendra Patil said, “The four-coach rail ambulance of CR is the first fully airconditioned medical recovery van of the Indian railway .“
National Rail and Transportation Institute (NRTI)
2018: operations start
The first of its kind university in the country on the transport sector, the National Rail and Transportation Institute (NRTI), started operations this week. Currently, it is functioning out of the National Academy of Indian Railways, Vadodara.
Funded by ministry of railways, with University of California, Berkeley and Cornell University as its international partners, the university started with two undergraduate courses — BSc Transportation Technology and BBA Transportation Managementswith 50 students each.
The deemed to be university plans to launch a total of five postgraduate courses and a few other undergraduate courses along with PhD programmes in the next five years. “The university plans to introduce five MSc and an MBA course from 2019-20. This year we started with two UG courses. A total of 103 students formed the first batch of this unique institute. The first semester for the courses are common and we are starting with visiting faculties from top institutions like XLRI and IIT, Madras, among others,” Lily Pandeya, executive directorspecial projects (university), ministry of railways, told TOI.
Passenger traffic
2016: Railways bears 43% of cost
The Times of India , Apr 15 2016
Railways bears 43% of travel cost at a yearly loss of Rs 30,000cr
Mahendra Singh Almost half of the cost of your train travel is borne by the railways. The political cost of doing away with the huge subsidy on passenger fares has prevented the transporter from tinkering with tariff over the years. The railways incurs a loss of Rs 30,000 crore every year in cross-subsi 30,000 crore every year in cross-subsidising passenger fares. “On an average, railways bears 43% cost of your travel,“ says a scroll running on the railways board's portal.
At a time when the transporter is under financial stress, there were expectations that the current leadership with Suresh Prabhu at the helm would revise passenger fares to bring out the transporter out of the financial mess. But, Prabhu seems to have opted for a “politically safe“ path by deferring the matter and leaving the “dirty job“ for the yet to be set up rail development authority .
The minister was of the view that the transporter should first focus on improving its services and try to raise resources through other means. “Whenever you raise fares, there are more questions raised than the rise. Therefore, we are trying to create a new mechanism whereby there will be a proper system that will be put in place (for revising fares),“ Prabhu had said.
Besides failing to meet its annual revenue targets, the railways is faced with an additional burden of Rs 32,000 crore this year towards implementing the 7th pay commission recommendations. Soon, after assuming office in 2014, the BJP government had announced a 14% across-the-board hike in fares, but was forced to roll it bac in sub-urban sector.
A.C. coach traffic vis-à-vis air traffic/ 2016
Domestic air traffic is booming but the travel surge seems to have given the railways a miss, especially in the more profitable air-conditioned classes. While air traffic grew 23% to almost 77 million during April-December, the number of passengers travelling in air-conditioned railway coaches, which touched 108 million, grew at less than 5%.
As a proportion of number of passengers travelling in air-conditioned coaches, air traffic was over 71% (see graph), which is a record. Just a year ago, it was a shade over 60%. As a proportion of AC passenger traffic, domestic air traffic used to hover around the 50% mark until 2014-15.
For Indian Railways, passenger traffic is subsidised by freight or cargo with fares, on an average, covering 57% of the cost. Airconditioned coaches are comparatively less loss-making, although AC three-tier was making profit.
A NITI Aayog analysis showed that a couple of years ago, the railways was spending Rs 1.67 for every rupee earned from its passenger business due to its socalled social obligation.
But a drop in air fares on the back of a fall in global oil prices, together with the railways' experiment with dy namic pricing -which made AC travel more expensive for those booking late -meant that it was more attractive to fly.
Faced with financial stress, the transporter ignored the decline in AC traffic and chose an easier option of introducing flexi-pricing for AC classes to reduce losses, over-looking the suggestions that it should actually hold fares, where it was vulnerable to competition.
Railways, as of now, controls large market share in suburban travel and long distance non-AC travel, but the state-run transporter succumbed to populist pressures and failed to rationalise fares in air-conditioned segments even as it lost shortdistance passengers to luxu ry buses and private vehicles and long-haul to airlines.
The transporter was forced to bear the subsidy of around 64% on suburban travel. While this accounts for 54% of passengers, it yielded just 5.7% of passenger revenues in 2015-16.
The only long-distance segment in which Indian Railways has a large market share is non-AC classes -sleeper and general, but the fare is highly subsidised.The NITI Aayog analysis showed that compared to bus fares, almost 99% of the fare in general coaches is subsidised, while in the sleeper classes the under-recovery is as much as 60%.
So, railways is actually losing a share of the profitable segment.
’Passenger’ (slow) trains
See graphic
Personnel issues
Shortage of staff: 2016
Chethan Kumar, 1.3L Safety Staff Shortfall Derails Rlys, Nov 22 2016 : The Times of India
Existing staff putting in 15 hrs a day
The number of people India loses to train accidents every year could be directly linked to the huge shortage of frontline employees in the “safety category“ of the Indian Railways -1.27 lakh such posts remain vacant as of 2016.
The safety employees, who include trackmen, pointmen, patrolmen, technicians and station masters among others, are directly responsible for the safe running of our trains.And, this crippling shortage of the key force on the ground, experts and unions opine, imperils the lives of passengers.
This has also resulted in the overworking of existing workers, almost all of whom are toiling more than 15 hours a day -leaving enough room for mistakes that could result in grave incidents like the one on Sundaywhich claimed more than 100 lives.
The Railways, which has been more than enthusiastic in spending on `designer uniforms' and other branding exercises, has exhibited nothing but apathy when it comes to filling up safety posts.
As of 2013, the number of such vacancies was 1.42 lakh and in three years, that has only reduced by about 19,500. According to information accessed from the ministry of railways, the national carrier has an overall shortage of 2.17 lakh employees. Of this, 56% or 1.27 lakh are in the safety category.
All India Railwaymen's Fe deration (AIRF) general secretary Shiva Gopal Mishra said, “Where we need three patrolmen, we don't even have one.“
A trackman, for example, says, “I work a 12-13 hour shift on any given day , and more in case somebody takes ill or on days of high maintenance. On an average any trackman needs to carry about 15-17 kg of equipment and we have to work whether it is raining or it is 42 degrees. We have no respite from harsh conditions and the least we hope is that the vacancies are filled up so that we at least get the deserved rest.“
Among the 18 railway divisions, the most such vacancies are in the northern division (14,442), followed by east central (10,034), south eastern (9,967) and central (9,910). The north central division, under whose jurisdiction Sunday's tragedy occurred has a shortage of 9,223 safety employees. Pointing out that the pressure is immense, a loco pilot, who did not want to be named, said, “Depending on the route and division, a locopilot could be driving continuously for 813 hours. The shortage affects us because we are all humans, we become sick, we get tired, and then mistakes can happen. When we have lives of so many people in our hands, you must understand the kind on pressure we work under.“
While the Railways officially maintains that it accords the highest priority to safety with measures like “replacement of overaged assets, adoption of suitable technologies for upgradation and maintenance of track, rolling stock, signaling and interlocking systems et al,“ union members say that the sheer lack of people to implement all these is what is resulting in accidents.
1.4 lakh rail safety staff posts vacant/ 2017
Amrita Didyala, Vacancies Show A Clear Case Of Railway Apathy, Jan 23 2017: The Times of India
1.4L rail safety staff posts vacant in India
The derailment of the Hirakhand Express comes in close succession to at least four similar train mishaps across the country.
Weeks ago, a goods train derailed at Wihirgaon station on Kazipet-Balharshah section of South Central Railway (SCR), leading to a major disruption of train movement on the important “trunk route“.
While authorities get down to checking the possibility of Saturday's train mishap -the fifth in the last six months -being the result of sabotage, the number of vacancies for safety officers shows a clear case of neglect and apathy .
In the East Coast Railway (ECoR) sector, where the accident occurred, there is a 24% vacancy in safety official roles, as per official records. Meanwhile, 1.42 lakh posts for safety staff remain unfilled across India, which, experts say , is a major concern and clear case of apathy .
“The pressure on crucial safety staff has remained very high over the years and this has also been pointed out in various internal reports. Not only are there huge vacancies but the existing staff work under sub-standard conditions.While higher-ups in the ministry might be awaiting the assistance of technology before filling vacant posts, the automated anti-collision device tested previously does not seem very promising. The posts need to be filled up,“ pointed out a retired senior official from SCR.
As against a sanctioned strength of 6,398 engineering staff posts, there are only 4,827 filled; the remaining 1,571 are vacant in the ECoR. Again, 67 posts in security , 93 in signal and telecom, and 613 in electrical local running are vacant as per Railway Board data.
“With such high vacancies in critical posts, mishaps are bound to happen. Engineering staff, signalling staff, and even loco pilots are frequently working 2024 hours straight due to vacant positions. Even SCR has over 10,000 vacancies in safety staff,“ said K Shivakumar, divisional secretary , SCR Mazdoor Union.
2017/ Perquisites withdrawn
Rail babus lose privileges as govt fights VIP culture, October 9, 2017: The Times of India
The railway ministry has asked senior staff to slug it out -at home and at work -in a bid to end VIP culture.
A new directive sounds the death knell for a 36year-old protocol mandating general managers to present themselves on the arrival and departure of the Railway Board chairman and members during zonal visits. Also, senior officials will have to relieve the railway staff they have engaged as domestic helps.
In an order dated September 28, the ministry said the instructions and guidelines regarding the protocol to be observed at airports and railway sta tions during the visit of Railway Board members stood withdrawn with immediate effect.
Officials estimate around 30,000 trackmen are engaged as domestic helps of senior staff. They have been asked to resume duties. Sources in the min istry said around 6,0007,000 personnel had reported back to work.
“No one will be exempt from the directive to rejoin work except under very special circumstances. We are hoping that all the staff will join work shortly ,“ a senior official of the ministry said. Railway minister Piyush Goyal has also asked senior officials to give up travelling in cosy saloons and executive-class privileges, and instead opt for sleeper and AC three-tier classes to mingle with passengers.
These include members of the Railway Board, general managers of railway zones, and divisional railway managers in each of the 50 divisions. “I believe that when these protocols were introduced, people drafting them would have seen some reasoning behind them. It is difficult for me to say what they were though. However, now these have no logic,“ said a former board member.
Production of coaches, engines, wagons
2016: Replacing ICF coaches with LHB to take 30 years
Mahendra Singh, Shift to safer LHB coaches may take 30 yrs, Nov 23 2016 : The Times of India
From: Mahendra Singh, Shift to safer LHB coaches may take 30 yrs, Nov 23 2016 : The Times of India
Phasing out of the ICF designed coaches, which piled up during the Kanpur train accident causing death of 150 passengers, will take almost 30 years if the railways moves ahead with the current pace of production of modern Linke Hoffman Busch (LHB) coaches, servicing elite Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains.
Ignoring suggestions of several expert committees which termed the ICF coaches as “safety risk“, the transporter's pace of switching over to LHB coaches has been very slow.
Apart from the inbuilt safety feature of not piling up, the LHB coaches are designed for speeds upwards of 120 kmph, are more fuel efficient and have longer a life span, while the ICF coaches are not meant for speed above 80-90 kmph. After the Kanpur tragedy , the railways is considering to step up the induction of LHB coaches, but a complete transition may take some time. As per the railways' coach production programme, the production units will make 1253 LHB coaches in 2016-17. If the transporter fails accelerate production of these modern coaches, it will take 30 years to replace the ICF coaches which form a large part of its fleet with over 40,000 in operation. At present, only 4,000 LHB coaches are in service.
The transporter is resisting the switch-over process due to poor finances and limited capacity of production units.
2019: India’s production capacity
From: February 8, 2019: The Times of India
See graphic:
2019- India’s production capacity of railway coaches, engines, wagons
Punctuality
2015-18, average punctuality rate and no. of accidents
_and_the_number_of_railway_accidents_(in_2015-18)_zone-wise.jpg)
From: July 23, 2018: The Hindu
See graphic:
The graph plots average punctuality rate (in % for 2016-18) and the number of railway accidents (in 2015-18) zone-wise
2017/ Superfast trains late 95% of time
Rs 11Cr Surcharge Collected From Travellers: CAG
North Central Railway (NCR) and South Central Railway (SCR) levied and collected Rs 11.17 crore from passengers as `superfast' surcharges, but some of their superfast trains were delayed more than 95% times, said a CAG report tabled in Parliament on Friday .
According to the Railway Board, trains with average speed of 55 kmph or more come under the category of superfast trains. A study of data on punctuality of superfast trains from 2013-14 to 2015-16 in NCR and SCR, however, revealed that such trains reached the destination late between 13.48% and 95.17% of the days on which they ran. In total, 21 superfast trains were delayed on 3,000 days out of 16,804 days because they failed to attain the `superfast' speed.
At present, there is no rule or policy to refund money if a train is delayed. Only when a person files a ticket deposit against reservation (TDR) against a train delayed for more than three hours is a refund possible.
According to the railways, `superfast' surcharges vary for different class of coaches.For example, it is Rs 15 for general coaches, Rs 30 for sleeper, Rs 45 for AC (chair car, AC-3 economy , AC-3, AC-2 classes) and Rs 75 for AC FirstExecutive class which were effective from April 1, 2013. Agra divisional commercial manager Sanchit Tyagi said, “There are scores of factors which lead to trains not achieving their superfast speed, thus causing delays. Some the prominent factors are the maintenance of tracks, signal glitches, emergency brakes and accidents which contribute in the late operations of railways.“
Asked if the railways should not be returning passengers the so-called `superfast' surcharges in such cases, Tyagi said, “There are no such rules or policy to refund money if a train is delayed, but when a passenger files a TDR (ticket deposit against reservation) against a train delayed for than three hours, then a refund is possible.“
The study on the movement of some of the superfast trains between 2013 and 2016 revealed that Kolkata-Agra Cantt Superfast (SF in railway jargon) was late 138 days out of 145.
Railway Board
Reoganisation, 2016
The Times of India, Aug 02 2016
Mahendra Singh
Now, an outside expert in rly board
In a big move to overhaul colonial-era railway bureaucracy , the Modi government has decided to allow lateral entry of external talent for one senior position in the railway board, reorganise the top decision-making body on functional lines and rework the policy of appointments of GMs and DRMs to eliminate discretion.
The Appointment Committee of Cabinet (ACC) decided to create a post of Advisor (resource mobilisation & development) which will be filled through lateral entry , aiming to accelerate the modernisation efforts to revamp the state-run transporter.
The ministerial panel, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also decided to reorganise the railway board on functional lines by creating post of member (infrast ructure), member (rolling stock), member (traction).
At present, the board has members dealing with different departments such as engineering, traffic, mechanical, and staff apart from the financial commissioner. Over the years, inter-services rivalry has often resulted in blocking of key projects, impacting the government's efforts to upgrade decaying rail infrastructure. While reserving the post of members for different railway services, the panel al so decided to create post of DGs in railway board for three services -personnel, signal and telecom and stores -which don't have representation as members.
In another move, the ACC has decided to discontinue entry of officers through the Special Class Railway Apprentice Examination (SCRA) in Indian Railway Services for mechanical engineers. Started in 1927, the SCRA involved selection to the undergraduate programme in mechanical engineering at the Indian Railway Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering (IRIMEE) at Jamalpur.
Jamalpur graduates -being the youngest to enter railway service -have usually had a disproportionately high share of senior level posts as divisional railway managers (DRMs) and general managers (GMs).
The selection process for GMs and DRMs has also being changed drastically to eliminate discretion in top level appointments which were mired in controversy during the UPA regime due to alleged corrupt practices, highlighted by the arrest of railway board member Mahesh Kumar and delay in filling large number of vacancies.
The DRM posts will be distributed as per strength of railway services and posting will be based on service-wise seniority eliminating the possibility of pick and choose.
Rail Development Authority
Rail Development Authority will help the Indian Railways take decisions on pricing of services, consumer interests, generating revenue and competition, among others
The Cabinet in April 2017 flagged off a major reform in Indian Railways, by allowing the formation of an independent railway regulator called Rail Development Authority (RDA), with an initial corpus of Rs50 crore.
The regulatory authority will change the landscape of Indian Railways as it will help the national carrier take decisions on pricing of services commensurate with costs, protect consumer interests, suggest measures for enhancement of non-fare revenue, promote competition and encourage market development, create positive environment for investment, promote efficient resource allocation and benchmarking of service standards, and suggest measures for absorption of new technologies and human resource development.
Until now, reforms in Indian Railways like increase in train tariffs and reduction in the number of railway employees have been withheld due to political reasons.
The need for a rail regulator has been emphasized since 2001 by various committees. The first recommendation for an independent rail regulator came in 2001 when an expert group under the chairmanship of Rakesh Mohan suggested the formation of a regulatory authority to fix rail tariffs. Later, several railway committees suggested a Railway Tariff Development Authority. The most recent recommendation for RDA came through the National Transport Development Policy Committee (NTDPC) in 2014 and Bibek Debroy’s Committee in 2015.
In Railway Budget 2015-16, minister for railways Suresh Prabhu had announced that for the purpose of orderly development of infrastructure enabling competition and protection of customer interest, it is important to have a regulation mechanism independent of the service provider. Further, it was proposed to set up a mechanism for making regulations, setting performance standards and determining tariff.
Functions of RDA
The railway regulator will work within the parameters of the Railway Act, 1989. Here is what it will do:
• Tariff determination: The regulator will frame principles, recommend tariffs, principles for classification of commodities, frame principles for social service obligation and guidelines for track access charges on dedicated freight corridors.
• Ensuring fair play: The Railway Board has been often accused of bias. The regulatory body will ensure level-playing field for all stakeholders. It will help propose modifications and send suggestions or advisory notes on investment in railways by the Indian Railways, make suggestions regarding policies for private investment to ensure reasonable safeguards to PPP investors and to resolve disputes regarding future concession agreements.
• Setting standards: It will help set efficiency and performance standards, and disseminate information in line with global best practices and benchmarking.
Constitution of RDA
The RDA will have a chairman and three members with a fixed term of five years each. They can be removed by the Central government only on certain grounds, including insolvency, conviction, misbehaviour, physical and mental incapability.
The organisation will be set up with an initial corpus of Rs50 crore and can engage experts from relevant areas for assistance.
It will be an independent body with a separate budget. The independence is ensured through provision of a separate budget, and the appointment and removal process.
The Central government will appoint the chairman and members by choosing from a panel of names recommended by the search and selection committee consisting of cabinet secretary as chairman, chairman railway board, secretary of department of personnel and training and chairman of any regulatory body of the Central government nominated by the cabinet secretary.
Rajdhani express trains
2018: Rajdhani fares vs. air travel
From: July 7, 2018: The Times of India
See graphic :
Rajdhani fares vis-à-vis economy air fares in August 2018
Rules for passengers
2017: sleeping hours are 10pm-6am
Rlys to trim your sleep time by an hour to reduce fights, Sep 18 2017: The Times of India
Tiffs As People `Oversleep' In Middle Berths
Railways will allow one to sleep for eight hours on trains, instead of nine earlier, as it seeks to put an end to frequent fights among passengers because of travellers oversleeping on the middle and lower berths in reserved compartments.
In a circular issued last month, the railways said that sleeping time would be between 10 pm and 6 am so that co-travellers could sit comfortably for the rest of the time. For years, the permissible time for sleeping was between 9 pm and 6 am.
Railways has, however, requested passengers to cooperate with the sick, persons with disabilities and pregnant women, if they wanted to sleep beyond the permissible limit. Defending the decision, an official said sleeping time was reduced by an hour because it was found that many passengers went to sleep as soon as they board the train -irrespective of day or night -leaving co-travellers on the upper and middle berths high and dry . He said problems also arose when passengers on the middle berths refused to get up so that those on the lower berths could sit comfortably .
The state-run transporter has received complaints about regular quarrels between passengers, mainly on long distance trains with journeys of more than 12 hours.
Officials said the problem was more acute for people travelling on side berths. The circular clarified that a person booked on the side upper berth would not have any claim of seat on the lower berth between 10 pm and 6 am.The new directive will help travelling ticket examiner (TTE) to resolve such disputes on board by preventing anyone from taking catnaps beyond the permissible time.
Stations
2017: the cleanest and dirtiest in India
Mahendra Singh, Beas, Vizag cleanest railway stations in India, May 18, 2017: The Times of India
Beas railway station is the cleanest, followed by Vishakhapatnam and Khammam, out of 407 stations in India, according to a survey released by the railways.Among the 75 bigger and busy railway stations, Visakhapatnam is on top, followed by Secunderabad and Jammu.
New Delhi station was ranked 39 among the most busy stations while Bangalore City is at 10th position, Hyderabad at 16th, Mumbai Central at 27th and Chennai Central at 49th rank. Interestingly , Anand Vihar (in Delhi) is at number five, just behind Vijayawada and ahead of Lucknow in the ranking of 75 busy stations.
Among stations in the cap ital, Anand Vihar is at 10th position in overall ranking while Nizamuddin has bagged 74th, Old Delhi station 75th and at New Delhi station is way back at 139th rank.
Stations at Jogbani, Madhubani and Sagauli -all in Bihar -are the dirtiest in the overall ranking. Among the most busy stations, Darbhanga (Bihar) was the dirtiest, followed by Bhopal and Ambala.
The railway station in Varanasi, the Lok Sabha constituency of PM Narendra Modi, was ranked at 14th position among busy stations while it managed to get 30th position in overall ranking. Gorakhpur, represented by UP CM Yogi Aditya Nath, is at 12th position (28th in overall ranking).
The survey was carried out based on regular periodic third party audit by the Quali ty Council of India and feedback from passengers. Clean toilets at platforms, clean tracks and dustbins at stations were some of the criteria for judging railway stations for cleanliness. According to the survey , Guwahati, Varanasi, Mughalsarai and Hazrat Nizamuddin stations have shown tremendous improvement in comparison to the last survey .
Among the zones, South East Central Railways, headquartered at Secunderabad, is the cleanest while North Frontier Railways, Guwahati, is the dirtiest. The survey was carried out for 407 stations, out of which 75 are in the A-1 category (most busy stations) which contribute more than Rs 50 crore in passenger earnings every year and 332 are in the A category which earn between Rs 6 crore to Rs 50 crore.
2017: the cleanest and dirtiest in Delhi
Jasjeev Gandhiok, Anand Vihar station fifth cleanest, May 18, 2017: The Times of India
Ranks Much Higher Than Old & New Delhi Railway Stations In A1 Category
The Anand Vihar railway station has been ranked fifth cleanest among the A1 category stations surveyed in the latest Swachh Railway Report -the cleanest in the capital ahead of its more heralded rivals, Old Delhi (24th) and New Delhi (39th) stations. Anand Vihar's cleanliness is helped to an extent by the smaller passenger load than the other two, but it also has some practical design features that helps it manage waste and dirt better. Stations whose annual earning is more than Rs 50 crore come under A1category .
Setting the station apart is the use of 10-metre wide subways instead of foot-overbridges. This feature helps reduce the passenger congestion on the platforms.
Railway officials said that another unique feature of the station was the loading of parcels, food and linen on trains in the stabling area rather than at the platform. This has greatly reduced the chances of garbage and litter accumulating on the tracks.
“On all other stations including Old Delhi, Nizamuddin and New Delhi, parcel goods, food items and linen are loaded on the platform. Moreover, at Anand Vihar, exit rooms don't open towards the platform but towards the main entry to the station to ensure that food items or garbage do not end up on the platform or the tracks,“ said RN Singh, divisional railway manager (New Delhi).
In addition, Anand Vihar has an underground drainage system designed to keep the tracks clean. The tracks also have the provision for being cleaned by spray machines that run on the central line between the platforms. “ A lot of plantation work has also been carried out in the non-operational areas at Anand Vihar to promote beauty and cleanliness, and we are conducting a survey that will aid us in carrying out similar developments at Nizamuddin, Old Delhi and New Delhi railway stations,“ added Singh.
Meanwhile, the New Delhi railway station will soon see an operational waste-to-energy plant becoming operational as part of a green initiative. This power plant is likely to handle most of the waste load generated at the station. At Old Delhi, there are plans to install solar panels.
Railways officials opined that a higher passenger load could be the reason why New Delhi railway station lagged so far behind in the Swachh Railway survey .
“New Delhi station is as old as Anand Vihar,“ said an official. “But the higher footfall there when compared with Anand Vihar is one reason why the cleanliness levels there are slightly below other stations in Delhi. But work is under way to improve the situation there.“
Renaming stations
See graphic , Renaming railway stations
Safety measures
Drone surveillance: Pune leads
HIGHLIGHTS
2 new drone cameras will be deployed soon on railway tracks and stations in Pune railway division
Pune railway division will be the first division in the country to use such a vigilance system
Recent incidents of derailment and other railway accidents have sparked this decision
As safety while using the Indian Railways becomes a matter of raging debate, it appears that the local division of this transport authority has decided to a rather futuristic remedial measure.
Now, two new drone cameras will be deployed soon to keep a hawk's eye watch on railway tracks and stations in Pune railway division — also incidentally making it the first division in the country to use such a vigilance system.
Recent incidents of derailment and other railway accidents have sparked this decision, and the first trial runs for these cameras will take place next week.
Speaking to Mirror about the initiative, Pune divisional railway manager B K Dadabhoy said, "Train operations, maintenance of tracks, vigilance against untoward incidents and various other initiatives are being carried out round the clock by the railways. When accidents occur on the tracks, our Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel and officials do take some time to reach the spot and verify matters. Often, there are cases of passengers protesting on the tracks, rail rokos and more — all in all, human vigilance has its limitations. So, we decided that drone cameras will aid us immeasurably when it comes to keeping an eye on railway tracks, Pune railway station and other areas under the division."
Dadabhoy added, "Initially, we will buy just two drones at an approximate budget of Rs 40 lakh. They will be highquality machines to record videos and take pictures at a certain distance above ground level. It will help us get realtime videos and photos if incidents like derailment, accidents, illegal track crossing, passengers' stunts (especially on Pune-Lonavala local train routes), track maintenance work, law and order situations and encroachments on railway property take place. Next week, we will conduct trial runs for the drone cameras, keeping one at Pune railway station and the other at Miraj railway station to cover nearby areas."
In October 2016, the Maharashtra Express train derailed at Pune railway station during its night trip; several incidents of youths carrying out stunts have also been observed on Pune- Lonavala locals. While the RPF takes continual action against miscreants and trespassers, they can cover only a limited area.
Meanwhile, commuters have welcomed the drone project. Prashant Sharma, a daily passenger to and from Lonavala, shared, "In the last 20 years, I have witnessed a number of accidents on this route, mostly when passengers are hit by stones thrown from the outside. There have also been issues of trains getting stuck along the route due to technical or other occasions — if this happens at a lonely spot now, the drones will help capture the exact location and help officials reach hapless passengers in case of any emergency." Initially, we will buy just two drones for around Rs 40 lakh. Next week, we will conduct trial runs, keeping one at Pune railway station and the other at Miraj railway station to cover nearby areas
Solar-Powered Train
India's First Solar-Powered Train To Save 21,000 Litres Of Diesel Annually
See graphic:
India's First Solar-Powered Train To Save 21,000 Litres Of Diesel Annually
Ticketless travel
2013-14
Source: The Times of India NO TICKET TO RIDE, Sep 04 2014
See graphic:
Indian Railways and ticketless travel: One of the world's largest railway systems, the Indian railways carry about 23 million people every day. That's like all of Australia on a daily basis. Obviously, checking all ticketless travel is a huge task.
Tracks
2017-18: tracks renewed at record rate
From: Mahendra Singh, For safer travel, rlys renews tracks at record rate in FY18, April 3, 2018: The Times of India
Travel by trains is set to be safer as railways claims to have carried out renewal of 4,405 km of old tracks with new rails in 2017-18 — the highest ever in a financial year.
An official statement said, “This is the highest ever progress of track renewal (primary) and exceeds the target of 4,389 km (revised to 4,400 km) for the year.”
The state-run transporter said that the previous best was 4,175 km in 2004-05 due to the deployment of the special rail safety fund which was set up during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s regime. As per railways data, during March 2018, 642 km rail renewal was carried out, which is the best ever progress in any month. The transporter has a network of total track length of 1,14,907 kilometres and of this, on an average 4,500 kilometres of track should ideally be renewed annually.
But, due to financial constraints the progress of track renewals was constantly coming down in last several years and resulted in huge backlog of around 5,000 km track for renewal and led to several accidents due to derailments. Railways has said the government accorded the highest priority to safety, due to which the number of derailments between April 2017 and February 2018 had come down to 53, as compared to 76 from April 2016 to February 2017. After taking over, Piyush Goyal who had replaced Suresh Prabhu as railways minister after the Utkal Express derailment, directed track renewal to be fast-tracked.
The state of the Railways
2015
See graphic:
Railway lines, state-wise, in kilometres, and the percentage of electrification.
2016
See graphic:
Railway projects under implementation in India, as in August 2016
2017
Derek O'Brien, Feb 16 2017 : The Times of India
Freight earnings in 2016-17 are lower than in 2015-16. This is the first time freight earnings have fallen since 1978-79. It is a telling statistic about the state of the railways and the overall economy .
For 70 years, capital expenditure for the railways has been borne by the Union government. Now, Indian Railways has set up 70 projects to be constructed in collaboration with nine state governments.
The sustainability of these projects is still to be tested. In the years to come, the railway ministry will wash its hands of these projects and leave them to state governments that may not have the capacity , expertise or means. This massive shift is being undertaken under the radar, and is leading to the Central government gradually walking away from a key infrastructure area.
The points raised above are not paranoia. There is a basis to them. Any budget has two sides that should balance: the earnings side and the expenditure side. When these don't balance, we have either a positive budget or a negative budget, a profit or a loss. In turn, expenditure has t two parts: revenue expenditure and capital expenditure. Capital s expenditure is raised by the revenue surplus that the railways can gather, boosted by loans, grants and budgetary support.In case of loans, there is an element of additional cost by way of interest.
Indian Railways has taken a g massive Rs 7.5 lakh crore loan t from Life Insurance Corporation.How will it repay the loan? It has no internal revenue surplus (despite the government's attempt to whitewash railway accounts) and without the cost and terms of the LIC loan being revealed. In the midst of all this, huge and capital intensive projects are being announced without assessing their profitability.
Is Indian Railways being sucked into a debt trap? Is this another Air India in the making? A separate Railway Budget would have required the government to explain all this in detail and answer hard questions.With the merger of the Railway Budget and General Budget, the government has neatly avoided this interrogation. The NDA government is focussing on raising funds for capital investment. But it is ignoring the priority of keeping revenue streams strong. This is like a household that is not earning enough but is taking loans to buy expensive appliances.For Indian Railways, this has amounted to a dearth of money for the depreciation fund and for essential safety works. The spurt in train accidents can perhaps be explained by this, and the consequences are worrying.
No doubt rail safety was emphasised in the Budget with the announcement of the Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh. However, as on November 2016, 1,25,754 non-gazetted posts related to safety were vacant.As of October 2016, there were 410 pending compensation claims relating to train accidents.Instead of bullet trains, doesn't India need more safety officials?
Can't the government at least fill vacancies that exist?
Safety is directly linked to the financial health of Indian Railways. The government needs to take immediate action to enhance freight and passenger earnings. Here again, some numbers are helpful. Till the 1990s, movement of petroleum products was the most profitable business segment for Indian Railways and it moved 75% of goods in this sector. Today the number is down to 10%. The focus should be on remedying such issues.
Postscript: I am a member of the Parliamentary Convention Committee that is due to meet next week. The primary duty of this committee is to recommend payment of dividends from Indian Railways to the finance ministry . With the finance ministry now taking direct charge of the Railway Budget, this committee has no work. I fail to understand why it is meeting and why it is not being disbanded.
The zones
2017: A ranking of the zones
HIGHLIGHTS
North Eastern Railway with its head office in Gorakhpur has got the last rank
The ranking is based on a set of 17 key performance indicators (KPIs) such as operational and financial performance
The KPIs have been made part of the annual performance appraisal reports of general managers
The railway board has started rating its 16 zones, with the aim to ensure that all senior officials take their work seriously as the performance of the zones will be reflected in their promotion and career progression.
In the rating done by the railway board between April and December 2016, South Eastern Railway headquartered in Kolkata is on the top while North Eastern Railway with its head office in Gorakhpur has got the last rank.
Interestingly, Northern Railway, with its headquaters in Delhi a few kilometres from the railway board office, was third from last.
As the new railway dispensation under Suresh Prabhu has brought in a private sector-like appraisal system+ , the career graph of top officers will depend on the amount of money they have helped the state-run transporter earn, physical assets they have helped create and punctuality of trains.
The ranking is based on a set of 17 key performance indicators (KPIs) such as operational and financial performance measured by passenger traffic and freight loading among others. The KPIs have been made part of the annual performance appraisal reports (APARs) of general managers, divisional railway managers and departmental heads in zonal railways.
Women’s railway stations
2018, Jan- March: Matunga, Gandhinagar, Ajni
Ajni railway station will become the third all-woman station in the country after Matunga in Mumbai, and Gandhinagar in Jaipur. Ajni, a satellite station of Nagpur, falls under the Nagpur division of Central Railway.
Matunga station became the first all-woman station on January 8 and is today manned by a staff of 41. It has also entered the Limca Book of Records. The experiment was replicated at Gandhinagar on February 20, where 28 women man the station.
Ajni will have 22 women. They include 1 station manager, 6 commercial clerks, 4 ticket checkers, 4 luggage porters, 4 cleanliness staff and 3 RPF personnel. The unique initiative was taken by general manager DK Sharma in July 2017 with the aim of empowering women.
See also
Railways, India: 1
