IIM-A looks forward to Lalu's lessons

Ahmedabad, Sep 17: With the Railway Minister Lalu Prasad all set to make his first appearance at the IIM, Ahmedabad, tomorrow, there seem to be new expectations on what direction the Indian Railways would take in years to come.

The railways, under successive Railway Ministers, tinkered with fares in successive budgets to meet the socialistic demands. The ministry was indeed in a loop line with major accidents adding to its worries. Finally, the bitter pill was delivered by the Rakesh Mohan Committee with its report in 2001, which gave a pessimistic picture.

With Lalu coming at the helm of affairs, there has been a direction and impetus, feels Prof Raghuram at the IIM-A, who was also a member of the Committee.

''Given the performance of the railways in the last two years, there has been a turnaround and we are analysing this from a set of financial determinants,'' the Prof said.

One of the initiatives was on the enhancement of axle-load capacity, he said.

This axle-load enhancement is technically being termed as a pilot project. Earlier, the axle-load on a wagon was 20.3 tons which was raised to 22.9 tons under Mr Prasad's leadership hence witnessing a healthy increase of 10 tons, the academic added.

The fiscal 2004-05 was Mr Prasad's first financial year in budget presentation, and there has been an improvement in revenue to 5,200 crores from Rs 4,000 crores in 2001. With the axle-load initiative in 2005-06, the net revenue of the railways has touched Rs 8,000 crore which is a record in a single year, Prof Raghuram said.

Mr Yadav's role has been one of giving the railways a dynamic momentum, the academic felt.

''He doesn't interfere in contracts or transfers which has been a contributory factor,'' he noted.

Another major feature of Mr Yadav's leadership is to cut time in loading and unloading of wagons. Earlier, the loading was done during the day-time upto 1800 hrs. But with his efforts, night loading has begun, the professor noted.

Even the time taken earlier in long-duration inspection has been cut and now it is more of inter-inspectional approach, he added.

Mr Lalu has set in motion several initiatives for both in goods movement and passenger amenities. His catering initiative, hospitality contracts (bedroll, food and maintenance of trains) has been made to work.

There are three aspects of railways that give it the financial muscle to sustain itself naming Freight, passenger and ''others''.

This ''others'' is relatively unexplored area in terms of revenue-generation. It includes advertisement, parcel traffic, setting up ATMs at railway stations among others. Mr Yadav has been keen to explore this third option ''others'', Mr Raghuram said.

Prof Raghuram had a word of praise for Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Sudhir Kumar, who is acting as an interface between the minister and the railways.

The IIM students, comprising four groups with 20 students in each group, would be making a 10-minute presentation before the Minister followed by a 15-minute of discussion. The moot question would be how sustainable the initiative of the Railway Minister has been from the organisational point of view, Prof Raghuram said.

UNI