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| Sunday, 17 July 2005 |
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Rail commuters beware by Jayantha Sri Nissanka Lives of railway commuters are in danger as the Department of Railways has identified 690 vulnerable points in the dilapidated 1500 km of rail tracks. General Manager of Railways (GMR) Priyal de Silva has informed the Secretary of the Transport Ministry that services of three lines Bandarawela-Badulla, Kandy- Matale, Negombo-Puttalam should be stopped soon as a result of the extremely dilapidated conditions unless immediate steps are taken to renovate the tracks. Over 300 vulnerable points have been identified in the Rambukkana-Badulla line itself. However, train crews have been instructed to restrict speed at these points. When asked what would happen in the event of a human error in restricting speed on vulnerable points the GMR evaded answering the question. Tracks have not been maintained with new sleepers during the past many years. Railways has to replace 800,000 sleepers. Each sleeper costs Rs. 5,000 and can be used only for five years. Therefore, it costs Rs. 4,000 million to purchase sleepers. The main reason for today's sorry situation of the Railways is the absence of periodical investments by past Governments, the GMR noted. He stressed immediate infusion of funds to resurrect the already collapsed Railway Department. Trade Unions blame top Management for inefficiency and said that the Commercial Authority Office is not properly collecting revenue from various other sources. Union members said that without increasing the train fare, the Railway can earn a huge income from renting out commercially valuable lands, advertising cutouts in railway properties, freight, etc. But the top Management has not considered developing new revenue avenues. "They are only grappling with the existing position to save their chairs", a Union leader said. Currently, the Railways has become a burden on the Treasury. Present income of the Railways is around Rs.1,700 million a year but Treasury grants Rs. 9,000 million for recurrent and capital expenditure annually. GMR Silva said that it cost 35 cents for a kilometre run of a passenger train when the diesel price was Rs.26. But now the diesel price has doubled and the fare structure is the same.
However, trains are running while maintaining, tracks, signal system,
communication system, etc unlike buses but a passenger cost of a bus is 70
cents a kilometre. |
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