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uting 4.9 percent of GDP. Railways is steadily losing
its share to road as the continuous increase in freight
has made Indian Railway one of the most expensive
freight amongst the major countries where rail plays
a significant in transporting goods. Even if one com-
pares the freight cost on Indian Railways as 1 unit per
ton-km, cost in China, Russia and USA is 0.58, 0.75
and 0.51 respectively. So no wonder these Duronto,
Shatabdi and Rajdhani would soon give way to air. Is
there a conspiracy to boost the airlines at the cost of
the public sector giant?
One simple example of irrational increase in
freight, putting Railways out of the competition, is
the cost of transporting HF cows from Bengaluru to
Delhi for setting up a dairy in northern India. Railway
charges 3 lakh per wagon which can hold 20 cows,

If Railways could charge

the same fare as that of

state transport buses,

its passenger segment

revenue would go up top tier cities. As per a railway official, an average
sleeper class passenger in these metropolitan cit-
to `100,000 crore, a ies spends almost half of the amount in travelling
from his house to the station, which he spends on his
surplus of `60,000 crore entire rail journey.
Unlocking potential
that may be used to Railways is a mammoth organisation, having huge
potential. Unlocking its potential and leveraging its
improve infrastructure database of passengers can generate millions with
a creative and innovative approach. Piyush Goyal
is trying to do that, but there is much more to be
done. Any conventional mode of raising revenue has
done more damage to the Railways and its impact
taking the cost of transporting each cow to 15,000. is far-reaching. Lalu Prasad, who was rail minister
Over and above this is the cost of transfer from rail- in 2004-09, took a short cut whereby he forced the
way station to farm. As against this, a truck can carry Railway Board to
cows and it costs 80,000 on the same route. Thus the increase the maximum axle load on railway track
cost is just 9,000 per cow, and this is point-to-point from 20.3 tonnes to 22.9 tonnes. This added load on a
delivery. Already, Air India is fleecing the exchequer. four-axle wagon increased its gross weight from 81.2
Further subsidisation of Railways would hurt health tonnes to 91.6 tonnes. Thus, of course, he increased
and education. revenue. But how this is going to impact age-old
As for surge pricing, if its objective is to augment infrastructure, especially bridges, which are often
revenue and observe passenger behaviour, it would more than 100 years old, will be tested in time only.
have been better to experiment with sleeper class in Once infrastructure starts crumbling, it would be a
trains where the fares are very low. In fact, 60 per- nightmare for the Railways. Already, investment
cent of the passenger traffic is generated from 5-6 in replacement and renewal is shrinking and such

Tehelka / 15 november 2018 24 www.Tehelka.com

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