The usual was absent. As expected there has been no fare hike and no new trains in this Railways Budget. Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu’s main focus is on building a future ready transport system and the sincerity and seriousness of a minister were very visible on the tracks.
There are some big things that could take railways to the next level. The freight business which provides two thirds of revenues to the railways suffer capacity constraints.
Prabhu announced plans for three new dedicated freight corridors across the country. This will play many roles. It will help expand more commodities to be transported on railways. It will help recapture the traffic that it has lost of road transport.
The more important effect of this will be on passenger traffic. With freight moving to the dedicated corridor it will create space and help speed up passenger trains. Now what we need to see is if the investments happen and will we stick to the time schedules.
Indian railways which is the fourth largest transporter in the world plans to remove all unmanned crossings by 2020. This is a big thing. It improves safety track record. Over 40% of all accidents happen at these unmanned railway crossing.
It also improve the speed of trains as train drivers get cautious and reduce speed of trains at unmanned crossing to avoid accidents. The government has roped in IIT Kanpur for a collision avoidance system to be installed at unmanned crossing.
Installation of CCTV in all stations is another idea worth the investment, currently they are only 88 stations with CCTVs.
Clean toilets is another thing that is getting attention and investment. The Railways will invest Rs 3702 crore to remove all the primitive toilers in trains. This is a crying need and a basic at that.
There are many things that need to work and to fire for the railways to become world class. Doubling of tracks is another areas of focus and to increase the speed of trains. There are many tracks where it has hit optimum limits.
railways must move to adding parallel tracks so that more trains can be run and more passengers can be carried. The ticketing system needs a revamp and technology needs to be upgraded for that to avoid misuse.
The railways is the lifeline of India and Prabhu has put a lot of steam to take it to the next level.
(Radhakrishnan Nair is Managing Editor, CNN-IBN)
Comments
0 comment