Why The Poor Can't find a Seat on Indian Railways

Traveling by  train from Lucknow to Delhi two years ago, I got a sense of the price that the common man pays for the slow pace of decision-making by the powers that be. As the overcrowded train took a winding turn, I spotted a column of elbows and heads jutting  out of the windows of the neighboring  general  compartments. This pathetic sight was naturally the result of a shortage of additional coaches and locomotives.

But when will the railways buy the coaches and locomotives that the system needs? How long will the average rail traveler have to put up with sleeping on the floor or fitting in like cattle?

The fact is that the shabby condition of rains is the result of intense apathy on the part of the railways. The case of two locomotive production units planned as a joint venture with the private sector serves as an indicator of all that is wrong with the national carrier.

Among the many achievements of the railways that minister Dinesh Trivedi would reel out during his rail budget speech on Monday, he may want to add a particularly interesting one. The railways may be the only organization in the country that has been unable to put out tenders for locomotives that were planned six years ago.

The staggering amount of time taken by the Railway Board to chew on the matter pertaining to establishment of locomotive factories in Madhepura and Marora in Bihar would put any black and white movie to shame. But like the Dedicated Freight Corridor project that’s running way behind schedule, the case of the proposed production units too seems to be in  stall mode.

One man who would be very interested in hearing from the railways on their plans pertaining to the factories would be Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Over the last year, the Prime Minister’s Office has been writing a series of letters to the Railway Board urging it to present a status report on the setting up of diesel and electrical locomotive factories.
 
In June last year, the PMO had co-ordinated a meeting of top bureaucrats from the railways in which these projects were discussed. The railways agreed to fast-track these projects by calling for tenders. And that was that. Since then the PMO has been writing regularly to the Board asking for its response. But the Board has decided to keep mum.
 
“One must understand that it is a coalition government. Mamata Banerjee does not seem to like the idea of bringing in the private sector and so the Railway Board has decided that it  need not answer the Prime Minister,” says a senior government officer who did not wish to be identified.

Railway Board chairman Vinay Mittal says that his department has been keeping the PMO orally updated on the issue. “The PMO knows where we stand on these projects and we are in the process of examining the papers pertaining to these projects. It is going to take time and I cannot specify by when we will be ready.”

Railway Board member, electrical, Kul Bhushan, said that the Board was unable to say by when the tenders would be put out. “Its too early to comment on this issue. The processes is on and we are working on it,” said Bhushan.

Two days after the Uttar Pradesh election results were  announced, minister Trivedi stated that the mid-term elections could be a possibility. Given that the government now faces some serious political challenges, it is unlikely that the Congress would want to exert pressure on Trinamul Congress to push ahead with the factory projects.

The two factories were conceived in 2006 when Lalu Prasad was the railways minister. The idea was that since the locomotive factories under the railways were unable to produce the numbers that were required, why not set up factories with private sector participation that could produce coaches and locos.

In 2008, after getting the cabinet approvals, the railways floated tenders for setting up a diesel loco factory in Marora and an electric loco factory at Madhepura. The two plants were to deliver 100 locos each every year over ten years; an order worth around Rs 40,000 crore.

The tender ran into controversy as only GE submitted a bid for the diesel locos. Railway officers say that they were in no position to grant the contract as it would then be perceived to have been given on nomination, which would have been in conflict with CAG norms.

“Had we accepted that bid, then every officer who had signed off on the contract would have been held answerable,” says a former Railway Board official. The tender for the electrical locos did not get any response although Seimens, Alstom and  Bombardier had expressed interest.  “We believe they did not pursue the tender as the general elections were only a few months away and they thought there was some political uncertainty which could affect these projects,” this person said. Competition in the locomotive space is limited to global biggies such as Bombardier, Alstom, EMD, GE and Seimens.
 
Railway officials who spoke about the background also say that since the competition is limited to a handful of big companies, the pressure was enormous. “Most officials therefore prefer to play safe and are reluctant to move on these tenders.”

An executive with a global transportation company that had expressed an interest in the tender was cautious. “We understand that calling for the tender would be a tedious process for the railways and we are hopeful that the tender would be called once again. After all the railways needs these coaches and locos,” said this person on condition of anonymity.

But what gets forgotten in the bureaucratic red-tape and the political cat-fight is the fact that the railways needs urgent attention. The shortage of locomotives, coaches and signaling systems is leading to congestion on the lines as well as over-crowding in the trains. And if the passengers of the railways want a better ride, it would be important to overhaul the lethargic system through which the railways places its orders.

The Dhall committee which examined the procurement system of the railways was caustic in its remarks about the Vendor Registration System followed by Indian Railways. Under the system, the  railways procures goods worth over Rs 20,00 crore from vendors registered with the Research Design Standards Organisation. The committee has pointed out that the prevailing system curtailed open competition and gave room for unfair practices in the selection of vendors.
 
Unless processes in the railways are fast-tracked, that absurd sight of people spilling from trains would continue to be a part of the India post-card.