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Rail chief demands more funds

Indian Railway Board Chairman V K Agarwal has sought an increase of Rs 15 billion to Rs 20 billion in its plan outlay and a substantial hike in the budgetary support for the new financial year.

Agarwal told Rediff On The NeT that the the Indian Railways's main problem was its declined market share in transportation.

"As against the 80 per cent market share that the railways enjoyed in both passenger and freight traffic in 1951, today it has 40 per cent of the freight traffic and about 20 per cent of the passenger traffic. The share of the road transport had witnessed a steep rise," he said.

Expressing concern over this decline, he said, "This had happened largely due to the lack of adequate investments in infrastructure and development."

He, therefore, emphasised the need to increase the plan allocation in the railway budget. "In 1951, we had about 75 per cent budget support, which had now gone down to barely 22 per cent," he pointed out.

He added that the reversal of traffic from road to rail transport may lead to the conservation of energy. "Being six times more energy efficient, we could save some Rs 53 billion worth of diesel," he pointed out.

In its bid to give road transport a run for its money, the railways are in the process of diversifying their existing international container service into the domestic sector, he said. "That is the only way we can ensure door-to-door service, bridging the edge that road transport enjoys over the railways," he added.

He admitted that, despite the balance sheet showing profits over the past several years, the "railways had registered a rather poor growth rate of 3 to 4 per cent".

He lamented, "While 50 per cent of the plan allocation was spent on the renewal of rolling stock, the bulk of the remaining amount was eaten up in meeting establishment costs as also social costs in the form of subsidies, that were not duly compensated. Of the Rs 83 billion plan allocation, the railways is spending over Rs 18 billion in meeting social obligations."