INDIAN RAILWAYS – IMPROVED PASSENGER AMENITIES

HASSLE-FREE JOURNEY AT AFFORDABLE PRICE

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ON THE EVE OF COMPLETION OF THREE YEARS OF THE PRESENT GOVERNMENT

Indian Railways, the premier transport organisation of the country and the second largest network of its kind in the world under single management, has initiated a number of passenger-friendly steps during the last three years that has brought about considerable improvement in the areas related to safety, punctuality of trains, passenger amenities, hassle-free and fast movement of passenger and freight trains. During the 150^th year of its operation this year, Indian Railways have undertaken a number of reforms and administrative restructuring aimed at furthering its inherent strength as the life-line of the Nation.

Constitution of the non-lapsable Special Railway Safety Fund (SRSF) of Rs.17,000 crore to replace the aging assets of railways, territorial re-adjustments of zones by creating seven new zones to step up efficiency, new efforts to mobilize funds from within the country and multi-lateral agencies for modernisation of the network, announcement of the National Rail Vikas Yojana by the Prime Minister, enhanced financial and administrative powers to General Managers, rationalisation of both passenger and freight fare structure, constitution of Railtel Corporation and Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, introduction of computer based Unreserved Ticketing System, releasing of the Status Paper on Indian Railways, putting of tender notice on internet to achieve greater transparency etc., were some of the few note-worthy achievements of Railways during the last three years.

The strategic importance of railways, in times of national emergency and natural calamities has gone up during the last three years. The mammoth organisation, which entered the 150th year of its operation in April this year, has announced introduction of sixteen Jan Shatabdi trains which are almost similar to the prestigious Shatabdi trains as far as speed and comfort levels are concerned and at the same time most affordable to the common man. Eight of these trains have already been introduced.

Territorial Readjustment of Zones and In-House Reforms

In order to bring about greater efficiency in administration, speedy implementation of on-going projects, better customer care, reduction of workload on General Managers etc., Indian Railways have decided to create seven new zones by territorial re-adjustment of existing zones. The Ministry has recently initiated steps to implement the decisions of the Union Government taken in 1996 and 1998 to create new zones based on the recommendations of the Railway Reforms Committee-1981. The new zones, having limited financial burden on Railways, will have thin and lean, efficient and modern administrative set up. Two of the new zones have already started functioning.

Since it was felt for a long time that enhanced financial and administrative powers of the General Managers of Zonal Railways and production units will translate into better management and customer care, as per the orders of the Ministry, General Managers can now finalise contracts worth upto Rs.15 crore of works and stores of sanctioned projects as against the earlier limit of Rs.8 crore. They have also been given rate reducing powers to quote station to station rates with a view to attract and retain traffic on commercial considerations. Forty five out of nearly 60 store items, which were hitherto being centrally procured by the Railway Board, have been decentralized for procurement by Zonal Railways.

National Rail Vikas Yojana

With a view to complete strategically important projects within a stipulated period of time, the Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee has announced the National Rail Vikas Yojana on the Independence Day this year. This non-budgetary investment initiative for the development of Railways is a tribute to Indian Railways which is celebrating its 150^th anniversary. Under the scheme which is being drawn up at present, all the capacity bottlenecks in the critical sections of the railway network will be removed at an investment of Rs.15,000 crore over the next five years. These projects would include:

• Strengthening of the golden Quadrilateral to run more long-distance mail/express and freight trains at a higher speed of 100 kmph.
• Strengthening of rail connectivity to ports and development of multi-modal corridors to hinterland.
• Construction of four mega bridges – two over River Ganga, one over River Brahmaputra, and one over River Kosi.
• Accelerated completion of those projects nearing completion and other important projects.

New Steps towards Safety and Security

Safety of 13 million passengers that Indian Railways serve every day is of paramount importance to the system. Over the years, apart from the regular safety norms followed, the network has taken a number of steps through innovative use of technology and stepped up training to its manpower to enhance safety standards. Constitution of Rs.17,000 crore non-lapsable Special Railway Safety Fund (SRSF) to replace the arrears of aging assets of Railways over the next six years has been a historical move in this direction. A number of distressed bridges, old tracks, signaling system and other safety enhancement devices will be replaced during this period. As far as budget allocation for safety is concerned, Rs.1,400 crore was allocated in the revised estimate for the year 2001-02 and Rs.2,210 crore for the year 2002-2003. Extensive field trials of the Anti-Collision Device (ACD), indigenously developed by Konkan Railway, is going on and once deployed across the Zonal Railways, this innovative technology will help railways reduce accidents due to collision between trains.

Security of railway passengers is at present a shared responsibility of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and the Government Reserve Police (GRP). Efforts are on to amend the Railway Act to give more powers to the RPF in ensuring security of passengers on trains and within Railway premises. Deployment of women police Force has been made for security and assistance of women passengers.

Improving Financial Health

The financial position of Indian Railways has been slowly but steadily improving. Some of the highlights of the financial performance during 2001-02 include: improved operating ratio from 98.8 per cent to 96.6 per cent, savings in ordinary working expenses of Rs.1,487 crore, Depreciation Reserve Fund (DRF) balance goes up from Rs. 78.04 crore during March last year to Rs.632.99 crore during same time this year. Railways have established a new milestone in incremental freight loading during July this year by carrying 5.70 million tonnes of goods. Freight loading for the last financial year crossed the target and attained 492.31 million tonnes.

New Trends in Passenger Amenities

During his Budget speech this year the Railway Minister has announced introduction of 24 new Express/Mail and sixteen Jan Shatabdi trains as a tribute to the travelling public of Railways which is celebrating its 150^th year. Eight of the Jan Shatabdi trains have already been introduced. In all, 329 new Express/Mail trains have been introduced, routes of 244 trains have been extended and frequency of another 68 trains have been increased during the last three years to cope up with demand.

To take care of the unreserved segment of the passengers, as announced by the Railway Minister in this year’s budget, a new pilot project on computer based unreserved ticketing has been launched this year. Of the 13 million passengers served by the network everyday, nearly 12 million are unreserved passengers. To cater to this huge segment, computer based ticketing systems has been launched for Delhi area and will be extended to all stations in Delhi very soon and in due course throughout the country. With this, unreserved tickets can be issued even from locations other than the boarding station and will reduce crowds at booking offices and stations.

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation with the assistance of Centre for Railway Information Systems has launched On-line ticketing facility which can be accessed through website irctc.co.in.

Last three years witnessed revolutionary changes in the use of IT in Railways and computerized reservation facilities were added at 245 new locations. At present these facilities are available at 758 locations in the country covering about 96 per cent of the total workload of passenger reservation. Computerized Reservation related enquiries about accommodation availability, passenger status, train schedule, train between pair of stations etc. have been made web enabled.

A pilot project for issuing monthly and quarterly season tickets through Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) has been launched in Mumbai this year and has been found very successful. Another pilot project for purchasing tickets including monthly and quarterly season tickets through Smart Card has also been launched.

‘National Train Enquiry System’ has been started in order to provide upgraded passenger information and enquiries. This system provides the train running position on a current basis through various output devices such as terminals in the station enquiries and Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) at important railway stations. So far the project has been implemented at 98 stations. The Railways have also launched website, www.indianrail.gov.in through which information regarding reservation status of booked passengers, rules, fares etc. are available.

Freight Operations Information System (FOIS)

Computerisation of freight operations by Railways has been achieved by implementing Rake Management System (RMS). Such FOIS terminals are available at 235 locations spread across different zonal railways. RMS application is providing the facility of rake based consignment tracking and pipe-line, train/rake operations, stock holding, train & stock inter-change, terminal handling performance, loco holding etc.

Railways established their own intra-net ‘Railnet’. It envisages networking between Railway Board, Zonal Headquarters, Divisional headquarters, Production Units, Training Centres etc.

Sterling Performance by PSUs

The public sector undertakings of the Railways, especially IRCON and RITES, scored commendable achievements during the last three years. IRCON International has achieved a record turnover of Rs.900 crore during 2001-02 and the foreign exchange earnings of this prestigious organisation has increased six fold over the years. At the international level, IRCON is at present executing different projects in Malaysia, Bangladesh and Indonesia. The PSU has registered a strong presence in the international scenario by its sterling track record.

RITES, another prestigious PSU under the Ministry has scaled new heights in performance, profit and dividend to the shareholders during the last three years. Its turn over increased from Rs.172 crore in 1999 to Rs.283 crore in 2002. RITES for its sterling performance secured the prestigious ISO-9001 Certification this year. The company has also entered into export/leasing of locomotives in different countries in Asia and Africa. RITES is operating all over the world including Columbia, UK, Iran, Malayasia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Excellent Performance by Railway Finance Corporation

Indian Railways Finance Corporation Limited secured excellent rating for fourth year in succession by the Department of Public enterprises on the basis of the performance targets. Besides, Standards and Poor’s, the international credit rating agency, also reaffirmed the sovereign ratings to IRFC. The Corporation has been making profits and paying dividends.

New Corporation for Tourism and Catering

Internet based ticket booking has been launched by IRCTC in Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai and Calcutta this year. Hygienic and air-conditioned food plazas having consumer-friendly ambience opened at Pune and Chennai and license for similar plazas awarded for 17 more locations. In all, 50 such plazas will be opened by the end of this financial year across the zonal Railways. Railneer – packaged drinking water is to be made available from December this year. More than half a lakh tourists have availed the value added tour package programme launched by the Corporation this year.

Innovative Technologies by Konkan Railway

Konkan Railway Corporation (KRC), the technological marvel of Indian Railways, has invented quite a few new technologies. Anti Collision Device (ACD), state-of-art indigenous technology of KRC is currently under-going intensive field trials and is capable of avoiding collision between trains.

Sky bus metro is another innovative, economic and eco-friendly mass rapid transportation solution devised by Konkan Railway. Self Stablising Track (SST) devised by KRC, which is undergoing trials at present, will help Railways run the fastest train in the near future and will make tracks much more safe and sustainable.

Private Sector Participation

The participation of both private and public sectors in developing rail infrastructure has gone up. A joint venture company was formed with Pipava Port authorities to provide broad gauge connectivity to Pipava Port. MoUs have been signed between Ministry of Railways and the State governments of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand in developing rail infrastructure in these States.

Telecommunication – New Trends

To give improved telecommunication systems on Railways, Optical Fibre based communication systems has been adopted and laying OFC has increased from 1,730 route kilometer in 1999 to 7,700 route kilometer this year. Rail Tel Corporation has been created to make a nationwide broadband multimedia network by laying optical fibre cable along the railway tracks. This system will provide better operational and passenger amenities and additional revenue to Railways.

New Technologies

India became the first developing country and the 5^th country in the world to roll out the first indigenously built "state-of-the-art" high horse power three phase electric locomotive when the first such loco was flagged off from Chittranjan Locomotive Works (CLW). CLW has been achieving progressive indigenisation and the cost of locomotives has come down to the level of Rs.13.65 crore.

Diesel Locomotives Works, Varanasi has produced state-of-the-art 4000 HP AC/AC diesel locomotive in April this year. These locos are capable of hauling 4,800 tonne freight trains at a speed of 100 KMPH and can run continuously up to 90 days in one stretch without any major maintenance.

Honours and Awards

Indian Railways achieved a number of recognitions and awards during the last three years in sports, tourism sector and for excellence in operational matters. In the recently concluded Common Wealth Games in Manchester, the Indian team’s record performance has been mainly due to Railway team’s excellence in sports. Except one member the entire women’s Hockey team which bagged the gold medal belongs to Railways. Mohd Ali Qamar of Indian Railways has bagged gold medal for boxing and other participants from Railways helped India win medals in many a team events. At the domestic front, sixteen sportspersons from Railways were conferred with the coveted Arjuna Award during the last three years.

The Railway Minister has flagged off a special exhibition on wheels as part of the 150^th year celebrations recently. This special train, which depicts the strength and dynamism of Railways, will be touching almost all places in the country including the Metros before reaching Delhi April next year. Railways organised a glittering function in Mumbai during April this year when the system re-enacted the historical moment of the first train run in India between Mumbai and Thane. In the capital, the Prime Minister released a special logo and mascot to launch the year-long celebration which will help bring Railways further close to the people and strengthen its glittering glory.

Darjeeling Himalayan Railways attained the World Heritage Status from UNESCO and the tableau based on the Railways has bagged second prize during the Republic Day parade-2001. Fairy Queen, the oldest functioning steam engine in the world, which finds a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, got Heritage Award at the International Tourist Bureau, Berlin in March, 2000. On operational front, Delhi Main station entered the Guinness Book for having the world’s largest route relay interlocking system.

Social obligations and care for weaker sections

The services offered by Railways both on freight and passenger segment is highly subsidized. During the devastating cyclone in Orissa and the earthquake in Gujarat Railways assisted in rescue and relief operations to the praise of one and all.

Senior citizens, students, disabled persons etc. enjoy concessional benefits from Railways. New initiatives in this area during the last three years include reduction of age limits for special concession to senior women citizen from 65 to 60 years, blind and mentally challenged persons can now travel in AC classes on concessional rates. Free second class Monthly Season Tickets (MSTs) for school going children upto tenth standard for travel between home and school was also introduced.

Tie-Up with Foreign Railways

Indian Railways is in constant touch with Railways across the world to bring in state-of-art facilities in its system. Towards this, a Memorandum of Understanding was singed this year during the Eighth Session of the Indo-Austria Joint Economic Commission held in Vienna. This seeks to promote and deepen long-term infrastructure-specific cooperation between Indian and Austrian Railways to their mutual benefit.

A three-day International Conference of Union of Railways was organised by Indian Railways in New Delhi this year in which hundreds of delegates from various industries and Railways around the world participated.