Clear Vision lands Rail Minister in a Political Hole

Railways minister Dinesh Trivedi stepped into Parliament House this morning as Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee’s minion in the UPA ministry but walked out in the afternoon labeled her worst enemy who hitched the nation ahead of party. While he was inside, he also presented one of the most ambitious and visionary railway budgets aimed at pulling out the world’s largest people carrier from progressive ruin to spanking modernity.

Trivedi departed radically from the socialist lineage of Railway ministers such as George Fernandes, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Nitish Kumar and his own party boss, Mamata Banerjee to present a long-term vision for overhauling the Indian Railways that transports 2.65 million tonnes of freight traffic and 23 million passengers every day.

Within minutes of the minister finishing his speech, he was vilified by Trinamul leaders who accused him of charting his own path without consulting the party in hiking passenger fares. "What was all that about increasing fares across the board? Upper class...maybe ok...but all? Sorry, cannot agree," Trinamul leader Derek O’Brien tweeted. Trivedi’s party colleague and minister of state for health Sudip Bandopadhyay said the railway minister should withdraw the fare hike as his party had never put a burden on the poor. "Railway minister is from our party only. It is his prerogative that he can say this (hike fares). We have given him time to withdraw the hike in fares,’’ Bandopadhyay said.

He skirted a question on "possible action"’ against Trivedi if he refuses to rollback the hike. "We hope it is withdrawn... Government usually rolls back, but TC never (rolls back its demand),"’ he said ominously.

The railways had not hiked fares for ten years. And over the years the losses in its passenger business have contributed to a crippling cash crunch that has made it impossible for it to invest in improving capacity.

"I did not consult anyone in hiking the fares and did it in national interest," Trivedi told national television channels after the budget.

The minister said the railways was in intensive care and in need of emergency surgeries and then went on to clearly lay out the procedures to revive the rail system.

A congested network, overcrowded trains with abysmal hygiene and safety standards is a perfect description of the railways. The figures are also unimpressive. The operating ratio – which is the money spent on every Rs 100 earned by the railways – is close to a perilous 95 per cent. The railways corners the least amount of private investment across all the infrastructure sectors and has only 4 per cent of its investment coming from partnering the private sector.
 
It took a minister who was willing to bite the bullet and Trivedi opted to go in for a massive overhaul instead of changing a wheel or two.

The minister has proposed appointing a couple of members to the Railway Board who would be in charge of public private partnerships and another who would look at safety. By appointing a member who would be in charge of PPPs, Trivedi has opened the doors to the private sector.

He wants special purpose vehicles to manage stations and hospitality. He also said that safety would be his first priority and wanted to pursue a zero-death policy by improving accident-prevention systems and ending unmanned rail crossings. This means that the minister apart from looking at the larger requirement of the railways of capacity expansion is also concerned about the immediate problems pertaining to safety and the unhygienic condition of trains, which now will be micro-managed.

"Who expected a Trinamool Congress minister to present a railway budget that is on par with the 1991 general budget presented by Manmohan Singh?" asks Akhileshwar Sahay, a leading infrastructure expert. Sahay says that this was one of the best rail budgets he had seen as the minister has not only clearly highlighted the distress faced by the railways but has also shown the path to take.

The railways is perhaps the greatest messenger of governance and India’s self-image as it links almost every part of the country. And to that extent, the railways has so far done a decent job of ensuring that the citizen is not left with much self-worth. Crawling below seats and hanging out from doors and slamming on toilet doors are not exactly quality travel.

Take the case of Vakeel Yadav, a resident of Muzaffarpur who drives an auto in Delhi. In the last couple of years, Yadav has had to stand and travel a whole day in the reserved compartment while traveling home. “The TT charged me Rs 800 and allowed around 50 people to travel seated on the floor. I could not even enter the general compartment.” The price of a regular reserved ticket from Delhi to Muzzafarpur is around Rs 500.

In the modern era of coalition politics the railways portfolio has always landed in the lap of a hefty ally which means the finance and rail ministries play cat and mouse over each project and every rupee of budgetary support. The ministry is often used by the overseeing minister to give sops to his or her home state and constituency while the Railway Board, a six-member body of bureaucrats, controls virtually every activity of a system that runs trains, manages stations, maintains signaling systems and lays new lines . Over a period of time, the railways has totally lost track of the need to expand capacity. To make matters worse, the realization has come at a time when it has surplus cash of only Rs 1,432 crore.