Indian Railways have staged
a dramatic turnaround over the last two years under the UPA Government
at the Centre. Modernisation of Railways, safety and security
of passengers, replacement and renewal of assets, track renewal,
improvement in passenger amenities, reduced expenditure, increase
in productivity and reduction in operating ratio, computerisation
of railway systems, including passenger and freight traffic, induction
of new technologies for signalling and telecom and prevention
of leakages of revenue, have been the salient features of the
overall development and expansion plans of Indian Railways, which
have been accorded a higher priority in the Common Minimum Programme
(CMP) by the Government.
Financial Performance/Revenue
Generation
Capacity
augmentation, enhancement of revenues through significant growth
in volumes by adopting various aggressive marketing initiatives
in freight and coaching business, technological upgradations,
cutting down losses and route-wise focused investment strategy
are the main thrust areas of the rail budget. The Plan outlay
of Rs.23,475 crore for the year 2006-07 is the largest plan size
formulated so far.
The targets of passenger, goods and
other coaching earnings for the fiscal 2006-07 have been set at
levels implying significant annual growth of around 12 per cent,
11 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively, over approximates for
2005-06.
The Railways have generated Rs. 36,405.20 crore of revenue
earnings from freight traffic during the financial year 2005-06,
as compared to Rs 30,778.40
crore during the corresponding period last year, showing an increase
of 18.3 per cent. Railways carried 667.39 million tonnes of freight
traffic during 2005-06, as compared to 602.78 million tonnes carried
during the corresponding period last year, an increase of 10.72
per cent. The Net Tonne Kilo Metres (NTKM) went up from 4,07,398 million during the financial year
ending March 2005, to 4,41,140 million during 2005-06, an increase
of 8.28 per cent.
The
total passenger earnings during this period were Rs.15,041.42
crore, an increase of 6.58 per cent over the previous year.
Railways’ operating
ratio now stands at 83.6 per cent, which is as per the targeted operating ratio during the current
fiscal, aiming still higher at an operating ratio of 77 per cent
during the coming years.
It is worth
noting that in spite of mixed operations (passenger and freight),
the Indian Railways are in the same league as some of the Class
I Railways in the United States.
Railway’s internal
generation of resources before dividend, which stand at about
Rs.13,000 crore in the previous fiscal, are
targeted to go up to Rs.20,000 crore by
the year 2006-07.
Year of Passenger
Service with a smile
The Year 2006 has been declared as the year of Passenger Service with a
Smile. To make Indian
Railways more aesthetic, comfortable and passenger friendly with
lighting, water supply, cleanliness and a friendly railwayman
to help every customer in need, the Ministry
has issued a list of ‘touch and feel’ points to all the
General Managers of Zonal Railways.
The ‘touch and feel’ points are – Improvement in cleanliness
standard in trains and at stations; Improvement in lighting particularly
on platforms, concourse, waiting halls, circulating area, booking,
reservation and enquiry offices; Improvement in circulating area
at all-important stations and making it congestion free and smooth
with proper demarcated parking areas; Upgradation of
waiting rooms, waiting halls and retiring rooms; Installation
of Train Running Position Indication Boards at all important stations;
Improvement in announcement
systems at stations; Upgradation of
Booking and Enquiry offices; Provide more counters to substantially
reduce waiting period; Ensure availability of drinking water at
all stations; Development of adequate sitting space in waiting
halls/platforms; Improvement in quality of food supplied in trains;
and Improvement in quality of bedrolls in trains and redressal
of public grievances. The schemes include round the clock grievance
control rooms.
Railways have formulated a New Catering Policy in order
to improve the standards of food being served in the trains and
generate more revenue. Under this policy, the catering contracts
will now be given through open tendering system.
In the New Catering Policy, provision of 25 per cent
reservation in award of licences of small catering units at ‘A’,
‘B’ and ‘C’ category stations, and 49.5 per cent reservation at
other categories of stations has been made for SC, ST, OBCs, Minorities,
war widows and widows of railway employees, freedom fighters and
weaker sections of society. These categories have been kept out
of tendering process in allotment of licences.
With a view to improving the patronisation of higher
classes, where occupancy level is relatively low as compared to
that in Sleeper Class and 3-AC classes, a Scheme of Frequent Travellers
(SOFT) has been launched, which
is applicable to I AC, 2 AC and AC Chair Car classes. A frequent
traveller will get a complimentary train trip after certain numbers
of reward points are accumulated.
It has been proposed to run Garib Rath trains between
a few destinations in the country. These will be fully air-conditioned
trains having fares about 25 per cent lower than the present AC
3 Tier fares and will run on the Delhi-Patna, Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Chennai
and Saharsa-Amritsar sectors. The train will be gradually introduced
in all State capitals of the country.
The Tatkal booking can now be done five days in advance,
in addition to availing of auto upgradation. The service is available
for all trains with internet and e-ticketing facility as well.
In addition, there is the facility of generation of waitlisted
tickets also.
Fare Rationalisation
Despite an increase in diesel and
petrol prices, Railways have not increased the passenger fares. To
achieve this growth, Railways has strengthened passenger profile
management system, rationalised reservation quotas of various
types and have reduced coaches from trains running empty and attached
these coaches to the trains which had long waiting lists.
To improve
occupancy in higher classes through a sound strategy, Railways
have introduced the scheme for upgradation of
passengers in a lower class to vacant seats in a higher
class with effect from January
26, 2006. The resultant vacancies created by this upgradation,
which is without any extra charge, is being filled in by the waitlisted
passengers in all the classes.
At present waitlisted passengers who
are not confirmed, have to first get their tickets cancelled and
then stand in a queue to buy a new ticket for a new train. Railways
have now decided to permit the facility of change of date of journey,
train. class etc. on the ticket of a waitlisted passenger also.
Through all these measures, the overall occupancy of the passenger
trains will improve and the passenger earnings will increase without
increasing passenger fares.
e-Governance
Reservation
of tickets through Internet is available for all trains, which
are covered through computerised reservation. At present, any
customer can book tickets through the Internet, provided he can
make payment online.
To
popularise booking through
Internet, the delivery of tickets has been extended to 181 cities. Payment options have been liberalised by introducing
the facility of direct Debit through Internet and Prepaid Cash
Cards in addition to Credit Cards.
The booking hours have been extended from 4.00 a.m. to
11.30 p.m. on all weekdays and from 4.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m. on
Sunday. In addition, facility
of booking through mobile phones has been introduced along with
booking of tickets through e-ticketing where conventional ticket
is dispensed with.
Integrated
Train Enquiry System has been launched for knowing Train Running
Status, PNR Status, and availability of accommodation through
Interactive Voice Recording System. National Train Enquiry System
has also been established to provide updated position to the passengers
These Centres will have the capacity to handle one lakh calls
a day. The system operates on the ‘Real Time Input’ basis by the
Control Offices across the country. A Web linkage has also been
provided on the Website (www.trainenquiry.com).
Modernisation Plan
Railways have started the work on
four mega bridges, which include Patna, Munger and Kosi bridges
in Bihar and Bogibeel bridge in Assam The bridge on Ganga River
near Patna will be constructed as rail-cum-road bridge.
All the major
stations in the country, including Bihar, viz., Mathura, Madhepura,
Darbhanga, Patna Saheb, Kishenganj, Tirupati, Naya Gaon, Araria,
Motihari, etc. will be developed as model stations and, in addition
to provision of various passenger amenities at these stations,
pit lines on need basis will also be constructed.
The work of
Rail Wheel Factory at Naya Gaon, near Chhapra, in Saran District
of Bihar, commenced on July 22, 2005. The construction work of
the proposed wheel factory is likely to be completed by 2009-2010
at an estimated cost of Rs. 470 crore. It would be the third wheel
factory and will produce 1,00,000 wheels per year.
Fifteen new
concrete sleeper plants are being set up. These will generate
direct employment of 8 lakh man-days and indirect employment of
12 lakh man-days per year.
Some of the
other measures include increasing the number of coaches to 23-24
in about 190 popular passenger trains and subsequent extension
of platform lengths on about 250 more stations, introduction of
55 new trains, extension of 37 trains and increase in frequency
of 12 trains besides making of over 200 mail/express trains superfast.
Freight Traffic
Railways have taken steps
to bring down the Turn Around Time of wagons from 7 days to a
target of 5.5 days by reducing the time taken in loading/unloading
and transit. Railways have reduced the per unit cost of
freight transportation by registering a historic 11 per cent growth
in freight loading volume during the year 2005-06.
The
Indian Railways have embarked upon an ambitious plan to develop
two dedicated freight corridors including additional corridors
for freight traffic. The two corridors will be between JNPT to Tughlakabad
and Ludhiana to Sonnagar with further extension to Kolkata area
in due course. On these freight corridors, higher axle load wagon
and double stack containers will operate. This will not only improve
the quality of rail freight services but also reduce the cost
of rail transportation significantly. Railways are having discussions with the Government
of Japan for funding of the two projects besides looking for funds
from other sources like Public-Private Partnership, Market borrowings
and leasing.
The movement
of goods trains is made simple and easy throughout the country
by removing almost all quotas and restrictions imposed in various
corners of the country. Now, except for iron ore traffic, Railways
is in a position to make available rakes throughout the country
in a short time as per demands of customers.
There has been good response to the Ministry’s policy
for permitting private container operators to run container trains
on Indian Railways. Earlier, only the Container Corporation of
India (CONCOR) was operating container trains on Indian Railways
prior to the announcement of this policy.
The rail routes connected with the ports have been grouped
together in four categories.
A dynamic pricing policy, a discount
of upto 30 per cent on incremental freight in the empty flow direction,
a Loyalty Discount scheme and a long term freight discount scheme
are some of the policies to generate more revenue from goods traffic.
The Claim offices at all zonal headquarters
have been computerised and web enabled (www.claims.indianrail.gov.in) so as to
provide online information to claimants about the status of claims.
This is helping the customers to find unconnected consignments
and is also proving to be a powerful tool in reducing the duplication
of claims. Relevant rules and procedures pertaining to claims
on goods and accident compensation are also available on the website
i.e. www.indianrailways.gov.in.
Safety and
Security
Safety is a prime concern
of Indian Railways and adoption of new measures to improve safety
is a continuous process. The measures being taken by Indian Railways
to minimise incidence of accidents include adoption of modern
technology for interlocking and signalling system, upgradation
standards of track and rolling stock, modernisation of maintenance
practices, replacement of over-aged assets and upgradation of
training aids like simulators.
In a major
development that will open up new vistas for innovative technologies
developed by Konkan Railway for safety, the Anti-Collision Device
(ACD),
also known as Raksha Kavach, has been included as an accepted
safety system and Railways plan
to install it on the entire broad guage route by the year 2013.
In addition
to giving protection against collisions at high speeds between
two ACD fitted entities, the Raksha Kavach also provides additional
safety features in train operations, such as detection of train
parting, train actuated warning to road users at level crossings
etc. Konkan Railway will
be executing this work phase-wise. The device has been installed
by Konkan Railway on its entire route and in Northeast Frontier
Railway (NFR). The installation
of Raksha Kavach (network of ACDs) on Rajdhani route of Northeast
Frontier Railway has been completed.
An Action Plan
is being prepared to weed out the defects and deficiencies of
the system in a planned way for preventing train accidents.
Track
Renewal
As
per the recommendations of the Railway Safety Review Committee,
a non-lapsable Special Railway Safety Fund (SRSF), amounting to
Rs. 17,000 crore, for liquidating arrears of the replacement of
assets, was set up in 2001-02. About 45 per cent of this amount
has been earmarked for track renewal. It is planned to renew 23,000 kilometers of
railway track during the Tenth Five Year Plan, i.e. 2002-07 out
of which 15,328 kilometers have already been completed by the
end of March 2005. For the year 2005-06, 4,000 kilometers of track
renewal has been targeted.
Ø
New Lines
on 330 kms. have been
added during May 2004-May 2006. As a measure of greater
capacity augmentation in the Railway Infrastructure Network, 1523
kms. of Guage Conversion and 513 kms. of Doubling has been done
Ø
New line
from Jammu Tawi to Udhampur (55 kms) was inaugurated on April
13, 2005, connecting Jammu & Kashmir to the heartland of the
country.
Ø
New line from Hassan to Saravanbelgola (43 kms) was commissioned in February
2006.
Ø
Manipur
and Tripura in the North East India are sought to be brought into
the Broad.
Guage
Railway Map of India by declaring the following as National Projects:
Ø
New line
from Jiribam to Imphal Road (Tupul) – 98 km at an anticipated
cost of Rs.728 crore and is targeted for completion by March,
2010.
Ø
New line from Kumarghat to Agartala-109 kms at a cost of Rs.880 crore and
is targeted for completion during 2006-07.
Ø
Gauge
conversion of Lumding-Silchar-Jiribam & Badarpur-Baraigram
– 292 kms at an estimated cost of Rs.1500 crore and is targeted
for completion by March 2009.
Railway Projects in J& K
Jammu-Udhampur Rail line is also a major achievement
of Indian Railways. The Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh
flagged off the Uttar Sampark Kranti Express and dedicated the
Jammu Tawi-Udhampur Rail line to the nation at Udhampur on the
April 13, 2005. The 54.85 Km Jammu Udhampur Rail line is
part of the ambitious Jammu-Udhampur-Shrinagar-Baramula Rail link.
The important features of this unique project include
hollow tapering pier shafts raised on well/raft foundation in
seismic zone of Himalayan regions, Cantilever construction of
pre-stressed concrete high rise box girders, encompassing rivers,
nallahs and unstable hill tops, laying tunnels through soft and
medium fragile sedimentary rocky strata, accentuated by the fact
that the terrain is tough, approaches are difficult and overall
un-favourable working environment.
Utilisation
of Vacant Railway Land
Railways
propose to set up Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) for commercially
exploiting unused land available with Railways. A Bill in this regard has already been passed by both the houses
of Parliament during the Monsoon Session last year.
This
authority will also develop railway stations in metro cities like
New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai as world-class mega terminals
where Shopping Malls will be opened. The vacant railway land in
other parts of the country will be commercially utilised which
will not only solve the problem of trespassing of railway land
but will generate additional revenue for the railways.
Clearing
of Backlog Vacancies of SC/STs
In pursuance of the UPA Government’s
Common Minimum Programme, a special recruitment/promotion drive
has been launched to fill up the backlog vacancies of SC/STs as
existing on March 31, and July 1, 2004, respectively, in a time
bound manner. About 77 per cent of these vacancies have been filled
so far and efforts are on to fill up the remaining vacancies.
Contribution
of Railways towards Peace Initiatives
The Peace Initiatives undertaken
by the UPA-led Government have shown significant results and train
services have been resumed between Munabao and Khokrapar besides
reviving Amritsar-Lahore train. This has given a new impetus to
passenger traffic between the two countries besides improving
the overall climate of trade and commerce in these countries.
It is also planned to have rail links between India and countries
like Myanmar, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
Heritage
Sites
The Nilgiri Mountain Railway
has been inscribed as World Heritage Site by UNESCO in their 29th
World Heritage Committee meeting, held in Durban, South Africa.
The Nilgiri Mountain Railway is easily the most authentic and
original rack and adhesion railway in the world. It remains much
as it was at the time of its completion in September 1908, such
as stations, signalling, locomotives and rolling stock.
Applications
for consideration of Kalka-Shimla Railway, Neral Matheran near
Mumbai and Kangra Valley Railway (Joginder Nagar-Pathankot) as world heritage sites are already under examination with UNESCO.
Besides these, other mountain railways like have unique qualities
for the inscription by UNESCO.
Fairy Queen,
the famous steam locomotive of Indian Railways completed 150 years
this year and is still in working condition.
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