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Industry's apathy throws Konkan Railway's cargo plans off-track

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji

Lukewarm response from trade and industry has run the three-year-old prestigious Konkan Railway into huge losses, approximately over Rs 5 billion or about Rs 15 million every day.

While the passenger traffic is picking up on the 1,336 km-long route from Bombay to Cochin, hardly any goods trains are running on this route along the coastline, covering four states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala.

Railway Minister Nitish Kumar's efforts to hold discussions with the industrialists in the four states however seems to be bearing fruits. One such meeting held in Goa at the weekend has brought to light several problems, though the industry feels it would take at least 15 years for the cargo traffic to pick up on the coastal route.

Since industrial development is still taking shape in the coastal region, the railway minister is now planning a tie-up involving Konkan Railway Corporation Limited and Hyderabad-headquartered South Central Railway to build a link to the hinterland, after which a lot of existing traffic could be diverted on Konkan line, saving their time as well as money.

Among several other practical problems, the trade and industrial sectors are unable to cope with the KRCL's schedule, states the railway minister. He is planning to sort out all the issues raised in the meeting with the Railway Board.

The next meeting is scheduled to be held in Karnataka.

Konkan Railway Corporation Limited chairman and managing director B Rajaram, while admitting unwarranted delays due to over 140 incidents of landslides during the monsoons, has however assured to take all possible remedial measures to overcome the challenge of soft soil all along the coastal belt.

Projecting annual earnings of Rs 800 million from passenger traffic alone, Nitish Kumar has also assured the Goa government to start tourism trains for a package tour of Goa, Bangalore, Mysore and Kerala, to boost the tourism industry in three states.

Goa Chief Minister Dr Wilfred de Souza has to now respond to the offer of state government's participation in it, after which the agreement would be signed between the Goa government, KRCL and the SCR. He has also announced yet another Goa-Bombay train, on the lines of Shatabdi Express shortly.

While the KRCL expects to reach a break-even point by 2008, the prestigious project worth Rs 33.50 billion is also affected due to non-payment of equity shares by Goa (Rs 96 million) and Maharashtra (Rs 360 million). The amount of foreign loans has also shot up from Rs 4.09 billion to Rs 4.88 billion due to rupee devaluation.