With the first year of that boldest vision document having been through in troubled times when the economy showed tepid growth and traffic volume equally dismal, this did not deter the feisty Prabhu to present another optimistic budgeting for the next fiscal. To cite his own words “the core objective is to improve the quality of customer experience at the individual level, become an engine of employment generation and economic growth at the national level and convert India’s largest institution into a template for transformation”. For an ordinary train traveler using ordinary second class, the experience is anything but comfortable in terms of passenger amenities, ease of entry and exit from the overcrowded stations and invariably insanitary state within the coaches and in and out of the stations.

Before the cosmetic changes and visionary blueprints the Railway Minister announced in his budget are highlighted, it would be germane to focus on the financial state of the system which is not a hale and hearty one. For the current fiscal which has got one month to go, the IR had budgeted a big jump in total earnings to Rs 1,84,000 crore, as compared to Rs 1,63,000 crore in 2014-15. Even as more than 62 per cent was to flow from freight, the incremental volume of 85 million tonnes for the whole year having been derailed to a derisory level, the railways had to reset the target to Rs 1,11,853 crore, against the budgeted Rs 1,21,423 crore. As the economy itself was in slow growth mode, the traffic offerings—be they bulk items or otherwise, were also not sufficient enough to make the system achieve its ambitious incremental freight volume.

Having pitched an unrealistic freight target, the authorities were ill-advised to increase the freight rates by 10 per cent effective from April 1, 2015. Similarly passenger earnings fell substantially, warranted by the persistent negative growth trend since 2013-14 and the general apathy of the system to the convenience, comfort and ease of travelling public. As a result, the hapless train travelers do not mind paying a bit higher to avail of other modes of transport! The 14 per cent hike in passenger fare soon after the new government assumed office without making any commensurate comforts in 2014, still rankles as a cruel thanksgiving to voters.

As steep drop in revenue could hit the internal resource generation and gross budgetary support from the government too none too substantial, the railways have been left with little option other than what Prabhu bluntly put it thus: “The magnitude of investment calls for abandoning the business as usual approach and continually innovating to find new ways of sourcing funds and executing projects”, he said amplifying further that these include, among others, formation of “joint ventures with states, developing new frameworks for public-private partnerships (PPP), scouting international markets for rupee bonds or engaging with multilateral and bilateral agencies”. While most of these unconventional routes of funding entail heavy borrowings with substantial interest cost to defray in the long-gestation projects, the fact remains that railways is reluctant is lose its monopoly structure. Its appeal to States to partner for projects might not yield substantive results unless the railways show a modicum of renunciation to shift some powers to State governments in running and managing the show. But a system which takes pride in running even suburban trains in Mumbai and Kolkata with the worst administration that refuses to revise fares to recover even the cost of running the ramshackle coaches, is it asking too much for the railways to let the States run suburban services within their respective territories so that a better managerial practice can be put in place, weaning the commuters from the subsidy-cum-below-par-service culture that has become the bane of the suburban trains?

For the Centre crying hoarse over cooperative federalism and functional autonomy to States, the IR can be persuaded to experiment at least this modest suburban service by State administration before enlisting them on big ticket projects of rail infrastructure. A modest beginning on this might definitely go a long way in inculcating new managerial practices in governance to India’s disparate States which might help in cementing the underlying unity in diversity credo India is proud of.

No other organization in the public domain has seen the spectacle of being the subject of innumerable Committees as the IR is over the past three decades and the saddest part of all these exercises is that they remain pigeonholed lest it should ruffle the army of 1.3 million employees of the system. The last and the latest in the series that began way back in 1981 under the Railway Reform Committee headed by H.C. Sarin with Dr. Manmohan Singh as one of its members is the Bibek Debroy Committee which submitted its report last year. Its sensible suggestions, among others, include the focus should be on running trains and not peripheral activities such as running schools and hospitals. The Committee also plumped for corporatizing the manufacturing of coaches, wagons and locomotives and setting up the Railway Regulatory Authority of India.

While the last one was announced in the last budget, the authorities are yet to put in place the regulator to this public transport monopoly even as it has begun the process of roping in private companies for some of its core and non-core activities and also enlisting private sector and unconventional sources of financing to modernize and expand its operations. If there is no neutral umpire to oversea the IR’s working by a regulatory body at a time when it has enormous tasks on hand, how would be the investors feel confident to invest or stay invested?

Given the crucial role the railways play in the national economy, it is time the authorities got serious in running the system as the best and ably managed corporation so that its overall reach to users, both individuals and industry, would truly be transformative. From this yardstick, the budget is not bold nor does it offer a smooth pathway for progress. (IPA Service)