Rail Budget 2014 Pitara : #GowdaGadi

written by: Khyati Srivastava (khyati.khush@gmail.com)

Rail-Gadi!! From Reel-life to Real life, Indian Railways are the life-line of Indian traffic. India! With population of over 125cr, the probability to travel of Indians is very high. Hence, you find every where one or the other person rushing towards the travelling lifeline of India, the Indian Railways. Each railway station each day is like a ‘fair market place’ where the festival never ends.

Indian Railways is a public sector undertaking completely held by the Indian Government and every year before presenting the Budget of India, Railway Budget is presented. Mr Sadanand Gowda, the present Railway Minister under BJP-led NDA Government headed by Shri Narendra Modi presented the Railway Budget on July 8^th’2014.

The Railway Minister started with explaining the importance of Railways and enlisting the challenges in front of the Railways. “With 12,500 trains, railways move 23 million passengers every day, which is almost equivalent to moving Australia's population”, he exclaimed. Further to quote him, “the present situation of Indian Railway is that it wants to ‘Earn’ & ‘Serve’ both. But both the intentions are like two tracks of Railway, which walk together throughout the journey and can’t be separated but never meet!” He detailed the people through Lok Sabha about the increasing losses and high operating costs. 

He quoted the last year figures justifying his statements:

• -          Last FY receipts are accounted to be Rs1.39 lac crore while expenditure is accounted to be Rs1.30 lac crore.
• -          Gross traffic receipts in 2013-14 was Rs 12,35,558 crore.
• -          Focus in past has been on sanctioning projects rather than completing them, Railway minister says.
• -          He mentioned that in last 10years Indian Railways spent Rs 41,000 crore on laying 3,700kms of new-lines.
• -          The operating ratio is about 94%. Hence a very nominal surplus, which is invested in turn in Social obligation & improvement measures. In 2013-14 the Social obligation of Railways was Rs 20,000 crore.

He clarified that the current price hike in railway fares shall not be extended as of now, and there is expected additional income to come from this hike of Rs8000 crore.

The Rail Budget under the Modi-regime was based on the model of “gati, aadhunikta aur suvidha”. Therefore, Mr Gowda declared that Railway Ministry shall focus on completion of existing projects rigorous measures in this FY, and work on improvement, safety and quality-oriented service. 

Let us see what the proposed budget has to cater to these objectives, :

1.      Gati : (Speedy Actions)

The ambitious dream of Prime Minister Modi of Bullet-trains is given way in the budget, launching the India’s first bullet train to run between Mumbai-Ahmedabad soon. Several high-speed trains (speed: 160-200km/hr) have been declared.

India has the largest rail network but not even a single high speed rail lines capable for supporting trains’ speed 200km/hr or more. The Gowda-Gadi has paved way for PPP-model in all relevant sectors for Railway infrastructural development. Even doors for FDI have been unlocked, except for Railway operations. These measures are meant to strengthen the infrastructure to facilitate the speedy trains proposed to come-up soon connecting many cities and essential routes, like Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Thiruvanthapuram, Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar, etc

The diamond quadrilateral project is expected to involve Rs9000 crore initial expenditure. Moreover the Rail-pitara came up with 5-Jansaadharan, 5-Premium and 27-Express trains have been introduced.

The Good-governance based model of Modi-sarkaar was given aakaar in the Railway budget, providing for Project Management groups which would overcome the delays in execution of projects. Mr Gowda mentioned that in last 30years as many as 676 projects were sanctioned. Of these, only 317 projects could be completed and 359 projects are incomplete. 

1.      Aadhunikta : (Technology oriented services)

Rail budget 2014 has enshrined the hopes of people to have a safe and hygienic, & very convenient and quality travel in Indian Railways. In the process of meeting them, this rail budget is unique in the way that it doesn’t provide populist measures rather strengthening the existing infrastructure.

The budget proposes promoting Domestic-tourism & Eco-tourism through Rail-tourism, (especially in the North-East) by identifying pilgrim circuits & running special packaged trains, plus special trains (like on life on Vivekanand) connecting 10-metro cities and other tourist destinations, pilgrimage areas, etc.

The exquisite provision of setting up Railway University & opening for Summer Internships in technical as well as non technical fields portrays the vision towards skill-development and employability of Indian workforce. The budget proposes rigorous computerization of railway operation to lead towards paperless work in 5years. It proposes inducing the work-culture and provides for Wi-Fi at major stations soon.

The Railway minister has declared to specialise its logistics services and proposed to develop Logistics Park, where it can offer services of packaging, labelling and mechanized loading-unloading, etc. Also, to develop specialised storage & handling houses (even for perishable items). This will be an additional income for railways. Moreover, the budget proposed to expand its Parcel business but keep it distant from main-route railway arena, so that it doesn’t troubles the routine traffic. There is an innovative proposal to start special milk trains with support of AMUL & National Dairy development Board.

2.      Suvidha: (user-friendly)

Railway budget aspires not to expand but to become more user-friendly, by improving its existing service-base, expanding their quality and overcoming complains (like unhygienic food, untidy stations, etc).

a.      Safety & Security:  More RPF constables to be recruited (17000 Men & 4000 Women) and shall be provided mobile phones with toll-free numbers. Also, the railway minister mentioned about the 11363-unmanned level crossings. Hence he declared to review these locations and build bridges soon.

Mr Gowda declared to set-up a fire-division in railway.

b.    Facilities: He also declared to build foot-bridges, escalators, provide RO-water at stations, more-shelters, toilets, etc. Moreover, railways shall be now eco-friendly, as the minister has proposed for bio-toilets. Also, he mentioned that the government is planning to bring bio-diesel in use.

The railway budget has brought battery-operated cars for old-age or differently-abled people on railway stations.

The railway minister has called upon several individuals, NGOs, Trusts, etc to take-up the service delivery activities hereby.

The innovative concept of work-stations has been brought up, with special facilities to work in train/stations on paid-basis.

c.       Ticketing: The budget also mentioned to expand the ticket-booking facilities. Next generation e-ticketing system is declared to support 7200 tickets per minute from present capacity of 2000 tickets per minute. Even ticket booking shall be made accessible through nearest post-offices.

d.      Cleanliness is next to Godliness: The rail-budget 2014 has increased its cleanliness-budget. Mr Gowda declared that to call for separate House-keeping wing with participation of charitable trusts, NGOs participation. Railway will outsource cleaning activities for 50-major stations to professional agencies. There will be CCTV set-up for monitoring, plus all India helpline shall be started.

In order to overcome the persistent complains on railway-catering, Mr Gowda has called for branded/non-branded ready2eat meals. The principle defined ‘hygiene, quality and variety’. Moreover, Food-courts shall be set-up at specific stations enabling online food-booking.

Lastly, Mr Minister mentioned the anticipated Railway revenue & expenditure for the FY 2014-15, as Rs164374 crore and Rs149176 crore respectively. He declared the mantra for current FY to be ‘safety, cleanliness & capacity building’. With all PPP and FDI introduced, he also mentioned about indigenisation of essentials. Employees of railway have been also gifted with increase of Rs300 per capita to the Staff Benefit Fund. 

With all this, Prime Minister Modi’s Gowda-gadi pitara has not come up with some super declarations but more of corrective measures to re-strengthen the Railway base and modernise it. If the proposed innovative measures are analysed, it could be clearly observed that all these are focusing on re-structuring the Indian Economy and strengthening the Indian Market. The new Railway connectivity in the manner proposed is oriented towards improving business environment to create more business & employment opportunities, strengthening the Indian market-base, expansion of railways to remote areas, eventually expansion of Indian economy. However, the challenge in front of the government is to carve out the railway dream into reality with existing poor infrastructure of Indian railways, inefficiency of railway operations and financial constraints of railway! Entering in the international market with this level of capacity may be a hurdle to call FDI and enter into PPPs for railways.

In the end, a little political angle must also be given here. It must be noted that Modi-government could easily present all these reforms in the Railways is due to its clear powerful majority. To quote Mr Gowda, “My esteemed predecessors..fell prey to the ‘nasha’ of claps in the House when they announced projects. I also can get claps..but that would be rendering injustice to the struggling organisation”

The TMC turmoil about not giving anything to Bengal is also due to number weightage, where TMC is having 34-MPs (unlike RJD) and Ex-railway minister as party-head. But we no more have a coalition government that has to keep all stakeholders happy. It can even absorb the tensions created by opposition! However, we must recall the position of earlier coalition politics period of UPA when it tried to propose a similar kind of FDI and PPP in Rail but could not because none of them was supported by the opposition. Also Mr Gowda resembled santa-claus for Maharashtra. Rail Budget 2014-15 has lot of gifts of Maharashtra. It may be seen as election appeasement policy.