For a start, he may have to try to avoid the populist agenda, which all his predecessors had adopted. Undoing some of the wrongs done may no longer be possible but he can avoid the pitfalls such as the introduction of hundreds of new passenger trains every year which are crowding out freight business, the mainstay of rail finances.
The single most vital task facing him will be to walk a fine line between the Railways’ role as a commercially successful entity and its social responsibilities, especially in the development of backward areas, which, according to Ms Mamata Banerjee, Mr Trivedi’s party boss, was a highly desirable objective irrespective of the very low rates of return such projects may generate!
A vast backlog of nearly Rs70,000 crore of works should perhaps make him pause before venturing into new areas of growth. A high-level review to prioritise the existing projects will enable him to get a “bigger bang for the bucks”, particularly developing section capacity in certain critical areas by doubling or gauge conversion. Undoubtedly, political compulsions will require early funding of scores of projects, already in the pipeline in West Bengal.
For a developing country such as India, there is simply no alternative to Railways as a vital engine for economic growth, providing a speedy and safe transport for passengers and freight at the least possible unit cost. Like Madhavrao Scindia, it should not take long for his keen mind to get to know the ropes of this behemoth, which during 1986-89 took a number of significant measures, including the introduction of a string of inter-city trains and a world class passenger reservation system.
It may be a vast monolith with layers of management, yet it is capable of responding quickly to an emergency situation such as floods, riots and accidents. Moreover, unlike the defence services, the Railways always remains at war, moving 14 million passengers and over 3 million tonnes of freight everyday over its 64,000 km of network, come hell or high water.
For the experienced and suave Mr Trivedi it should not be too difficult to fathom the inter-department rivalries and curb tendencies to protect one’s turfs, often at the cost of overall efficiency in the system. For instance, elimination of brake vans and with it the train guards on freight trains by the introduction of electronic EOT (End Of Train) or LVD (Last Vehicle Device) has been hanging fire for quite some time. This will go a long way in reducing staff costs as has been done for over a decade now in the case of the US, European and other major railways.
It may be too late in the day for him to reverse the irreparable damage to Indian Railways’ command and control structure by Mr Nitish Kumar when overnight he created seven new rail zones, taking the number from a manageable nine to 16, adding substantially to overheads. However, a review of Mr Lalu Yadav’s hike in the carrying capacity of wagons to obtain higher freight earnings, which is reportedly leading to a dangerously higher rate of wear and tear on both the track and the rolling stock, may be in order.
Unlocking the immense potential of the DLW (Diesel Loco Works), the CLW (Chittaranjan Loco Works), the ICF (Integral Coach Factory) and the RCF (Rail Coach Factory), which are world class manufacturing facilities for locomotives and coaches, respectively, by aggressively marketing for exports may enable him to earn valuable foreign exchange and give a boost to the Railways’ finances, which at present it is woefully short of!
High-speed trains, whizzing past at 300 kmph and connecting important metros and modern state-of-the-art station buildings resembling airport terminals, are prohibitively expensive ventures which are best left for the private investor — if the minister can find one — under the prevalent PPP (Public Private Partnership) regime, which Planning Commission mandarins are assiduously pushing for.
Nor should he invest in expensive the ACD (Anti-Collision Device) developed by the Konkan Railways which has a very limited role to play. Intensive monitoring in the observation of safety rules and rigid preventive maintenance schedules of track and rolling stock are the two thrust areas to ensure safe running of trains perhaps at a fraction of the cost of the ACD.
An ACD may detect a train on the same track — a highly unlikely scenario — but cannot prevent a derailment as it happened recently at Malhan, nor can a collision with a train derailed on the other track in a double line section as could be seen at Khanna in Punjab more than a decade back!
However, a slew of passenger train accidents in the recent past are undoubtedly a cause for worry. Perhaps, the minister should get the Railway Board to have a relook at a new category of accidents in the 1980’s — the “inconsequential” ones. These are mostly derailments, particularly of goods trains, which have not led to serious “consequences” such as the damage or loss of assets or lives.
This was primarily done when things were really bad, giving a rather skewed picture of the Railways’ safety record. Since then large-scale renewal and up-gradation of steel rails and improved rolling stock designs have sharply brought down the number of such incidents. Time is now ripe to do away with such a category, ensuring a much higher transparency in reporting, detailed analysis and having a critical look at all train accidents, big or small
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