Lalu to pamper passengers in 4th railway budget

New Delhi, Feb 18: For a fourth straight year, train passengersmay not have to dig deep in their pockets on account of ticket fare asRailway Minister Lalu Prasad gets ready to spill the contents of hisbudget in the Lok Sabha on February 26 amid firm indications that itwill have a pronounced people and business friendly flavour.

Top class passenger amenities, fillip to infrastructure throughPublic Private Partnership (PPP) projects and tapping new avenues toenhance revenues like inclusion of tourism industry are likely to bethe three defining features of the coming rail budget, the Ministryofficials pointed out.

Introduction of more 'Garib Rath' trains, converting Mail andExpress trains into super fast ones, running all popular trains with 24coaches from the existing 18 and improving occupancy of trains byanother five per cent through passenger profile management are alsohigh on the minister's agenda.

I have no plans of hiking passenger fares. I have turned theRailways around without increasing fares in any category, says MrPrasad, whose out of the box ideas have transformed the loss-laden andcustomer-unfriendly transport behemoth into a customer-oriented,profit-driven enterprise and an engine of growth.

With the 'management guru' hat sitting firmly on his head andlaudatory messages coming from UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh, Mr Prasad will not like to tinker with theexisting fare structure at least not directly.

In last year's budget, fares of first class AC and second class ACwere reduced by 18 per cent and 10 per cent respectively while third ACwas left untouched. In order to reduce losses in passenger faresegment, he announced super fast status for 200 trains and thus gotadditional Rs 20 per ticket from such trains.

The minister may be tempted to once again fall back on thissurreptitious measure to earn more income through passenger tickets.

Further, third AC fare may be brought down marginally and AC firstand second class rationalised. This is a good way of countering thecompetition from low-cost airlines, they contend.

Instead of squeezing the passengers, Mr Prasad will play onvolumes --- more passengers and more freight traffic by improving theamenities and infrastructure. The new targets include 730 milliontonnes of freight loading and 50 per cent reduction in passengerbusiness losses without any hike in fare, point out officials.

''A vacant seat is a lost seat. I will like my ministry to 'playon volumes', getting more people to use the Railways because fullcapacity trains would ensure a sharp increase in revenues,'' says MrPrasad.

Garib Rath trains, providing air-conditioned rail travel at anaffordable cost, would run from all state capitals across the country,he recently said at Patna. However, this will depend on the capacity ofRailway Coach Factory, Kapurthala and Integrated Coach Factory,Perambur to keep pace with the increasing demand for specialisedcoaches having 81 berths instead of 64 in normal coaches.

The Railways is also actively considering a proposal to redesignAC three-tier coaches for general trains and increase their capacity.This year may see an increase in coaches in some 190 trains.

''Most of our sections are saturated and there is a limit to ourcapacity of running additional trains. A way out is to run longertrains which can carry more passengers,'' the officials point out.

Aiming to achieve a fund balance of Rs 20,000 crore by March thisyear, the Railways is planning a major strategy to qualitativelyupgrade the profile of passenger amenities. Zonal Railways have beeninstructed to identify and hire consultants and architects to refurbishthe design and look of stations.

Work to convert 17 major stations into world class ones would beset into motion in the next fiscal. These stations will be equippedwith facilities like shoeshine, automatic vending machines for waterand soft drinks, outlets of fast food chain Nirulas and McDonalds',fully air-conditioned waiting rooms, shopping malls, multiplexes, foodplazas, multi-level underground parking and budget hotels.

Another focus of the budget is likely to be promotion of tourismthrough trains. The Tourism Ministry has impressed upon the Railwaysthe need to jointly launch package tours under the tourism-promotion'Incredible India' programme. In a bid to strengthen this opportunity,the overseas offices of the tourism ministry would devise special plansto promote tourist trains, particularly the Mahaparinirvan BuddhistCircuit train. The ministry has already extended the advance bookingperiod for train tickets from 60 to 90 days following a request fromthe Tourism Ministry. Thus, the minister may announce some touristtrains sporting Tourism Ministry's 'Incredible India' logo and reapprofits from this untapped sector.

Facilities like satellite radio for listening to choicest tunes,wi-fi-enabled Internet facilities on board Shatabdis and Rajdhanis andcatching live TV programmes while travelling in Shatabdi trains arelikely to be announced. 0n-board audio and video dissemination andentertainment system in AC chair cars would provide connectivity withmobile network for real-time updating of train-related information.

All these measures are intended to substantially increasepassenger services revenue which would minimise loss in the segment byover Rs 1,000 crore. In 2005-06, it lost over Rs 6,000 crore inpassenger services.

The Public Private Partnership (PPP) is all set to becomeRailways' new business model, and the ball has been set rolling byprivatising the container business. It has attracted 14 applicants,bringing in Rs 540 crore as licence fee, while actual revenue flow isestimated at Rs 10,000 crore.

Mr Prasad says his ministry has formulated an ambitious plan forthe modernisation and growth of Railways, entailing an expenditure ofRs 3,00,000 crore over a period of five years, and 40 per cent of it isexpected to come under the PPP model.

The Budget is likely to contain announcements with regard toparticipation from the private sector in the areas like operation ofcontainer trains, construction of Dedicated Freight Corridor, logisticparks and refrigerated warehouses at 7500 stations, freight booking andticketing, operation and maintenance of Yatri Niwas, commercialutilisation of 43,000 hectares of surplus land, modernisation ofstations, construction of private sidings and inland container depots.

Freight business, however, continue to be the main focus in orderto make a profit of Rs 20,000 crore in 2006-07. Not surprisingly, MrPrasad describes goods trains as 'bread earning horse for theRailways'.

The railways has streamlined its freight business by reducing theturnaround time of wagons from seven days to five and increasing theirload capacity by 4-8 times through 24-hour facility of loading andunloading operations. The budget may see announcement of new incentivesfor customers like more attractive seasonal discount schemes in freightloading.

Infrastructure development will be a major focus area. Withcapacity augmentation high on the agenda, the Railways will focus onmodernisation of wagon technology, advanced signalling andtelecommunications, induction of high horsepower locomotives and use ofIT to improve transit time and lower unit cost production.

The budget is to lay emphasis on accelerating identified works ofdoubling port connectivity, gauge conversion, signalling and telecom,renewal of assets and augmentation of manufacturing capacity of rollingstock.

Keen to join the bandwagon of booming retail trade, the Railwayswill come out with a draft policy with the objective of expanding itsportfolio of products for freight operations. Preliminary talks hadalready been held with companies like the Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance,ITC, Pantaloon and Adani Enterprise for evolving the policy of supplychain management infrastructure development, primarily foragri-products but also for non-agricultural commodities.

Officials point out that the financial side of the Railways'strategy would be to leverage budgetary and internally generatedresources and plough them to service its huge Rs 3,50,000 croreinvestment for the 11th Plan.

Being the inaugural year of the 11th Plan, Mr Prasad's fourthbudget will be crucial for the Railways seeking a budgetary support ofRs 75,000 crore during the five-year plan period when its total plansize in the 10th Plan was Rs 80,000 crore.

The Budget 2007-08 provides an opportunity for the minister to setthe tone and tenor of the Railways' priorities and objectives duringthe entire Plan period.

UNI
>