Modi tries to get India’s railways back on track
5 July TN
India´s new government will next week roll out plans to overhaul its
sprawling rail network, dubbed the “lifeline of the nation”, which
analysts say needs hundreds of billions of dollars of investment.
Two days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi´s new administration
presents its first budget, a separate rail finance bill will be
presented to parliament on Tuesday following a controversial recent
fares hike.
The country´s railway system is one of the biggest in the world,
stretching from the foothills of the Himalayas to the southern
beaches.But observers say it has been neglected by successive
governments over the past three decades of rapid economic growth during
which car ownership has surged and low-cost airlines have mushroomed.
“I´m very glad the government is addressing the chronic logistics
problem,” said Arvind Mahajan, an infrastructure specialist at KPMG. “It
has a lot of work to cover.Still the main form of long-distance travel
for most of India´s 1.2 billion population, around 23 million people
travel by train every day.
But some services are booked up for weeks in advance and overcrowding
especially in lower-class carriages which lack air-conditioning means
rail travel is often a miserable experience.
The network has a dreadful safety record with a government report in
2012 putting the number of deaths each year at nearly 15,000.Many are
killed falling off overcrowded trains or crossing the tracks. Others are
charred to death while perched on coach roofs as high-voltage
electricity courses through overhead wires.
As for freight, endemic delays make it sometimes impossible for
businesses to predict when their goods will arrive.Under the previous
centre-left coalition, the main governing Congress party was happy to
leave the railways ministry in the hands of a junior partner which
showed little inclination to push reforms.
While fares remained low, the ministry´s losses grew ever higher and
it was haemorrhaging some $150 million a month by the time Modi´s
right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) trounced Congress in May´s
general election.In a speech last month outlining the government´s
priorities, President Pranab Mukerjee said “modernisation and revamping
of railways is on top of the infrastructure agenda”.Echoing similar
pledges in the BJP manifesto, the speech included promises to improve
safety, expand services in the remote northeast and build a network of
freight corridors for farm produce. |