INDIAN
RAILWAYS generates
a cash surplus before Dividend of Rs. 20,000 crore in fiscal* 2006-07
signifying an impressive Rs. 5300 crore in a year from Rs. 14,700
cr in the previous fiscal.
"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
".........ye
safar jaari rahega" ".........this
journey would continue"
Har
saal nayaa saal tarakki ka, pragati ka,
Aapka hai saath to phir ye safar jaari rahega.
Every
year is fresh year for progress, for development
When you are with us, this journey would continue.
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.
The
wonder man Mr. Lalu Prasad, CEO of Indian Railways,
indeed did a miracle. He is today all set for a game to take
on any of his opponents to disprove their assumption. His
success stories are wafting through the corridors of the
Rail Bhavan, headquarters of Indian Railways. The Railways
has created history by generating $ 5 billion cash surplus.
This is the same Railway that defaulted on payment of Dividend
and whose fund balances dipped to Rs 359 cr
in 2001", a beaming Railway minister Lalu Prasad informed
the members of Indian Parliament while presenting his Ministry's
annual Budget for fiscal* 2007-08.
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.
NASSCOM Award
India Railways, Asia’s largest network, has baggedIT Transformation Award 2006 of NASSCOM, the national
platform of the Indian IT industry. Commenting on Indian
Railways achievement, Kiran Karnik, President of NASSCOM said
that the Indian Railways is “an extraordinary example of a
turnaround story, and their plans of public private
partnerships for IT (which include ERP, MIS, and optimisation
and consolidation of multiple applications and Mission 2015
plan), makes this a challenging and exciting opportunity for
IT companies.”
Indian
Railways will invest $ 1.5 billion or Rs 6000 crore over the
next five years to upgrade IT facilities in rail network.
"We have the best operating ratio..Have invested Rs 1000
crore on IT in the 10th Five year Plan and plans to invest 1.5
billion dollar over the next five year years", Sudhir
Kumar, OSD to Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, said at the
NASSCOM award giving ceremony on June 25.
In September, the Indian Railways would be inviting the best
open competitive bids from the IT companies for several
initiatives. These IT initiatives include giving hand-held
computers to ticket examiners, building cyber cafes at
stations, digitizing the signaling system and linking all
online applications with the computerized reservation system
and tracking the passenger and freight trains, he pointed out.
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.
Since
it hauled the first passenger train on April 16 1853, from
Bombay’s Bori Bunder to Thane, the 154-year-old state
monolith now requires a major overhauling -both in terms of
capacity addition and of private participation to undertake
gigantic projects like dedicated railway corridors that would
entail massive investments running into billions of Rupees.
While
planning so, Lalu Prasad has made it absolutely clear unlike
many of state facilities, Indian railways is not going to
private hands exclusively. It welcomes selective private participation
in the form of public-private partnership (PPU).
BACK
& FORTH
2006-07
E
2007-08
P
Goods
earnings
(In Rs. Crore)
42299
46943
Y-o-Y
Growth
( In percent)
16.5
10.9
Goods
loading
(In Mn tonne)
726
785
Y-o-Y
Growth
( In percent)
8.9
8.12
Passenger
earnings
(In Rs. Crore)
17400
20075
Y-o-Y
Growth
( In percent)
15.03
15.37
Passenger
traffic
(In billion)
6.24
6.60
Y-o-Y
Growth
( In percent)
7.03
5.76
Net
Operating Surplus
((In Rs. Crore)
11537
11509
Y-o-Y
Growth
( In percent)
5.29
-0.2
Operating
Ratio
( In percent)
83.7
78.7
E-
Estimated P- Projected
While
playing on volumes (both passenger and freight traffic) to
attain voluminous growth in net earnings of the railway, the
minister has rightly taken up plans to ensure optimum utilization
of the existing rail network, to minimize turn around timing
and introduce higher axle load goods trains to keep pace with
the projected growth in national economy and possible demand
for this mode of transportation.
Last two fiscal years in particular has witnessed significant
growth in incremental loading of goods which had otherwise
been stagnating for quite sometime. Taking into account the
current year's estimated 60
million
tonne, the incremental loading in last three financial years
(since the Congress (I)-led UPA government came into power
will stand at 170 million tonnes. Close on the heels of successful
pilot introduction of 22.3 and 22.9 Tonne axle load trains,
25 T Axle load trains have been put on pilot run. Production
of 25 T axle load wagons and 22.9 T axle load wagons of new
design will commence in 2007-08. Similarly, 22.9
T and 25 T Axle load wagons suitable for steel and petroleum
products will also be manufactured.
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.