Though certain improvements have taken place in the day to day workings of railways and their related processes, but it is really unfair for laloo to take credit for all of this, simply because these things are controlled by railways' top brass and not by the minister, the
minister do take and approve some strategical decisions..and these are the very decisions that I am going to assess very closely.
As far as I understand the things, there are two major reasons of these increased revenues:-
1. Restructuring of passenger fare and related rules-it is a well known fact that the railways have not increased the fare for sleeper class in the last two years and infact it decreased the fare for AC class, but we need to understand that this is basically
because of market pressure(because of aviation industy) and
not because of some kind hearted policies.
Before the railways introduced ticket upgradation policy(which is a very genuine and user oriented policy) ..the avg occupancy in AC coaches was very low.
Prior to the implementation of this policy in 2005, the occupancy rate was 45 per cent for the AC-I category and 62 per cent for the AC-II category. AC-III had 79 per cent occupancy rate.
Now the profits were booked by –
(a)
Additional coaches were added to the existing busy trains that generated lots of extra revenues.
(b) Profits were booked on the back of some backdoor
/hidden charges. Like increasing the cancellation charges(by upto 100%) and scrapping the continuous/ongoing journey concept(though i think later it was taken back), another interesting thing is that the share of tatkal reservation increased due to the fact that now it can be booked 5 days in advance(so now it can hardly be called tatkal..and the benefit is going to agents rather than the ones who desperately need it). Tatkal tickets are costlier than the regular tickets ,so this also helps in generating moremoney for the IR.
While point(b) shows that the money is actually being milked from the users while on the surface the fares are not increased. I will come back point(a) which is actually very serious, after providing some related sources.
2. Increase in freight revenues- freight traffic was increased by increasing the axle-load, now just recently the results of a pilot project showed the negative impact of this myopic policy –
Results of a pilot project run by zonal railways over 30,000 km indicate that carrying a 22.9-tonne load against the earlier 20.3 tonne weaken rail tracks leading to a deterioration in running quality. At places, track formations have shown fatigue that, if not addressed, could lead to fractures. The report notes that higher axle-loads lead to greater wear and tear and flattening of rails along steep curves. The results are harsh on tracks carrying iron ore where it has adversely affected their resilience.
Read the full story -
Finance News on Yahoo! India
There are chances of some accident happening because of these weakened tracks, I can’t believe that the govt went ahead with this plan before a proper study of its side effects.
So guys this is the truth behind this turnaround.
The foundation of this growth story, that is being projected as a management charisma(which in turn should suggest better operations, increased efficiency and employee productivity) are really not that strong.
I am specially worried about this axle-load increase and adding additional coaches beyond the specifications(that may result in quick worn out of not only the tracks but the engines as well. These measures are too pedestrian and desperate.
I would like to end this post by an analogy(its not a pleasant example and i am sorry if it disturbs you) – in many parts of our country, labourers consume cheap desi liquor in limited quantity as it helps them to work more than there capacity and kills the urge to eat and also helps them to sleep by reducing the feeling of pain(coz of aching bodies). In short term it helps them to earn more(by working more)and spend less, but in the long term it takes its toll heavily on their bodies, resulting in fatigue..making their condition miserable after they cross the age of 30-35. It also affects them by considerably reducing their life span.
By opting for measures like increasing axle-load and adding more coaches, Indian railways seems to be doing something like this.
We need real improvements , efficiency of operations(supported by the data of how many trains are moving as per schedule) , user friendliness, pro-poor policies(can you believe that the so called Gareeb rath has its cheapest ticket priced at 500Rs for patna-delhi.. isn't it a bad joke with the ones for whoom it is intended), who will ensure better connectivity, reduced accident rate , implementing better technologies etc?
Too many questions are still unanswered and a lot many new ones are getting raised!!
Help
Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is little voice at end of day that says I'll try again tomorrow!! 
Linear Mode
