Revitalising the Railways

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s clarification that there was no question of privatising the Indian Railways may not have been wholly necessary. But, to dispel a rumour campaign that it was being privatised, Mr. Modi used the ‘good governance’ platform from his Varanasi constituency to drive home that message. The fact remains that the government and the Railways badly need private and foreign investment in the system. The kind of resources needed to take up ongoing projects and also launch ambitious ones such as the dedicated rail corridor and bullet train services, cannot be met by public sector funding alone. That is why the Prime Minister has been looking to Japan and China to provide both technological and financial support to some of these projects. Equally important was the reiteration of the plan to set up four Railway universities across the country.

Internally, the Railways is constantly trying to raise more funds and increase earnings from both freight and passenger fares. But a rather unpopular move in recent months has been the dynamic pricing of fares and the premium-rate Tatkal tickets.What is more, for the holiday season now, the Railways have introduced special premium trains based on the dynamic pricing policy. The chief problem with the premium scheme is that it keeps the ordinary passenger who books tickets at the railway counter, out of the system: those without Internet access cannot utilise this option. Notably, in its first Railway budget, the BJP-led NDA government raised passenger fares by 14.2 per cent across the board. Even last year, without the dynamic fares, the Railways earned about Rs.1,000 crore through the Tatkal scheme.

Source - The Hindu