Congratulations to our new Railway Minister for presenting his first rail budget which fulfilled the expectation of the people. I hope this budget will help the national treasure as well as it suits the common man. However, effective implementation is still a task. “A committed hard worker derives his first ever Railway Budget”, was his last quote, and parliament gave a huge applaud to him. It is an average and expected budget but most of the things are difficult to implement and some of them are over-said. The proposal calls for huge investment from loss making Indian Railways which is unjustified. The proposed source of funds through PPP or FDI is a wild guess in this budget. Since, the control of Railways will rest with Government, the investors are likely to be skeptical on funding without their direct control on revenues and expenditures. Adoption of Railway Station by private parties is innovative. However, the revenue sharing model is not clear. Railway Board to be restructured is a thought which is not clear with regard to its purpose and type of restructuring. Creating infrastructure for cold storages and refrigerated parcel vans for movement of milk, fruits and vegetables is a good move for revenue generation. However, each type of fruits and vegetables need different temperature and relative humidity levels. It’s not clear on how they will do it. Overall it is a good budget, if implemented without keeping it on papers.
Safety, quality, implementation of new technologies, corruption free and dynamic employees, this is what new Railway Budget has given us this time. People are looking for the safety measures in public carriers. First railways in India started in 1853, but even after 67 years after India’s independence we are still struggling for complete modernisation. I hope we can see some major enhancement in Indian Railways during NDA regime. Railway is the life line of the country which connects everyone.
Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda announced government’s first railway budget, featuring a number of passenger-friendly announcements to counter the sting of the rail fare hike. 50 new trains were announced. High-speed network and bullet train was planned in his suitcase. Better food during train journeys was announced by him. Cooked, ready-to-eat meals of known brands will be served on trains; action will be taken against vendors for poor quality. Food can be ordered by SMS and phone. Food courts to be introduced at major stations. Most of the time food is placed near toilets, food spilled out of containers with flies around. Sometimes, they give us used trays and spoon for serving. Food is never checked before serving to people. This time Railway Budget has been allocated 40 per cent for cleanliness, CCTVs will be used at stations for monitoring cleanliness and third party inspections will be introduced. Cleaning will be outsourced at 50 major stations.
All basic amenities expected by common commuters are very well figured in clean Couch and toilets, the foremost need of the hour is infrastructure building for increasing the capacity of passenger trains by increasing number of trains or by number of coaches. People are tired of having 500 people in a coach having a capacity to carry 72. This is the case for almost all trains that run in the northern parts of the country. The second priority is removing corruption and increasing efficiency. The matter might be of tatkal ticketing or punctuality of trains or keeping the trains and stations clean. This does not involve any additional spending only requires will power of the management. Transparency is the need of hour. Sanitation is anyways going to be improved. The reservation system will be revamped and ticket-booking will be facilitated through mobile phones and post offices. E-ticketing will enable 7,200 tickets per minute – against the current 2,000 per minute – and allow 120,000 users to simultaneously book online. Office-on-Wheels, Wi-Fi and workstation facilities on select trains, top 10 stations will be revamped for airport-like look and feel. SMS wake-up call for passengers. There is also a major problem of TTEs who are asking for money and granting favours to passengers who are willing to pay for seats. Food courts with high level of hygiene should also be available at stations.
Lack of police personnel is leading to rise in robbery and theft incidence in the overcrowded bogies. Adequate police force can avoid this type of cases. Though people register complaint for such incidents, they hardly get their stolen things back. Very few stations have security check and none of the stations have luggage screening which should be made mandatory. If railways are hiking fare then it should also provide security to them. Especially, at night, police personnel should patrol the coaches because theft incidents occur specially at this hour. Now, Minister has announced to recruit 4,000 women constables for the safety of women passengers. There should be a helpline where one can report any act of corruption, security concern with immediate help available via security guards in trains.
Moreover, many are not happy with rail budget and some opposition leaders made chaos in Parliament, but we need to understand that the Railway Minister is talking about long term investments. A new freight corridor would cost 50 thousand crores but would give returns to the government also. If a railway wants to build it today, they either need to increase passenger fare to collect money first or borrow from the government. However, if they build it with FDI, the cost can later be compensated by reaping the benefits from it.
Anyways, to conclude here, ‘Bullet Trains’ are welcome but first let’s get the aging infrastructure viz tracks and electric poles upgraded. All the electric poles to be located away from the tracks to prevent passengers hanging in the foot board hitting their heads against it. The Over Head Traction wires to be moved still further up to prevent passengers in Mumbai from getting electrocuted. Regenerative brakes to be fitted to the wheels which will generate electricity whenever the brakes are applied. The current produced can be used to power up lights/fans. Much more is required than said during budget session. Let’s hope, government brings some joy to train ride.
