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INDIAN
RAILWAYS "Instead of appreciating the good initiatives taken by us, there have been people who have been making fun of us. They have been making unfair comments like 'Lalu rail ko chopat kar dega' (Lalu will mess up the Railways). But we have been able to prove them wrong." - Lalu Prasad to Business School students at IIM, Ahmedabad "It is truly exciting. Year after year Lalu Prasad is becoming a turnaround expert and the figures he has given are mind-boggling." - Ramesh Maheshwari, President, Texmaco
“It is the minister’s passion and integrity that is leading this change.” - Sudhir Kumar, Officer on Special Duty to the Railway Minister *India's fiscal year begins on April 1 RAILWAY
ZONES Central
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Har
saal nayaa saal tarakki ka, pragati ka, Every
year is fresh year for progress, for development CAUGHT in a "terminal debt trap" and being faced with a threat of being closer to "fatal bankruptcy" as had been painted by the Rakesh Mohan Committee in 2001, he had raised an war in 2004 against the pessimists to allay their serious apprehension that Asia's largest railway system would not only collapse but would turn into a colossal financial liability (over Rs 610 billion by 2016) for the country's federal government. It is the worlds second largest system under one management which has an extensive route length of over 62,800 kilometers and with 1.4 million manpower, it is running 8049 passenger trains and 5500 goods trains daily, moving 13.6 million passengers and 1.2 million tonne of goods every day. Indian Railways has taken up biggest ever annual plan for the Railways in fiscal 2008-09 entailing massive investment to the of Rs. 37,500 crore signifying 21 percent increase over previous year.
But what about the sustaining this growth in future? "I have stated time and again that if development is not politicized, the country can move forward and we have proved this with our performance. I say to all the people that this is not my Railway, it is the Railway of the entire country and the entire country has to make it move forward and take rest only after making it No. 1 in the world," the minister said in an interview. What is the magic behind this turn around? "The magic is the leadership. Magic is the minister’s leadership. Leadership makes all the difference. It is his leadership that is helping to build up this beautiful team and excellent consensus and teamwork" said Mr. Sudhir Kumar, Officer on Special Duty to the minister in an interview. Under his leadership 1.4 million railway family-members made it happen, he added. Over a span of five years -- 1999-2000 to 2005-06 -- Railways fund balance swelled by hefty 7953 percent to Rs 12000 crore from a meagre Rs 149 crore in at the end of fiscal 1999-20. All calculations went haywire and buried all apprehension of the experts who had been reading only 'dooms days' for the Indian Railways. The Railway minister has plausible reasons to boast: While the growth in total earnings of railways during the first three years (2001-02 to 2003-04) was a moderate one, it started showing double digit growth from 2004-05 when earnings were up over 10 percent ( Rs 4465 crore) which again zoomed by around 15 percent or Rs 7121 crore.
The growing interest of international entities like HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs or McKinsey in the railways current and future development programmes possibly dismays widespread apprehension about Indian Railways future. However, everything is not hunky dory in Indian railway system and network. The minister of course never claims so. He knows the opportunities. He knows limitations as well. That's why at the end of presentation of the Railway Budget for 2007-08 he expressed the hope that only if all are with him, this journey to make Indian Railways one of world's best, will continue.
Although
the ambitous Golden Quadrilateral and its diagonals would cover
16 percent of the rail network, more than 50 percent of the traffic
moves on these routes. or conducting of pre-feasibility surveys
for construction of East-West, East-South, North-South and South-South
corridors. This apart, the Indian Railways itself iwill conduct pre-feasibility surveys for construction of East-West, East-South, North-South and South-South corridors. "My dream is to construct these corridors in a manner that they develop into efficient and economical trunk routes for speedier, longer, heavy-haul trains", said Lalu Prasad in his ministry's Budegt. speech. Alongside, high speed passenger corridors are also being seriously considered by the Indian Railways. It would conduct pre-feasibility studies for construction of high speed passenger corridors, equipped with state of the art signaling and train control systems, for running high speed trains at speeds of 300 to 350 kms per hour; one each in the Northern, Western, Southern and Eastern regions of the country. These trains will cover distances of up to 600 kms in two to three hours. To implement thse projects, among other possibilities Private Public Partnership will also be considered. Year 2007-08 marks the beginning of the 11th Five-Year Plan period. During this plan period Indian Railways would like to achieve freight loading target of 1100 million tonnes and passenger traffic target of 8400 million. The biggest investment during this period would be in building up the Dedicated Freight Corridors. Construction of the Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors will start in the year 2007-08 and are estimated to cost approximately Rs. 30,000 crores.
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