For this, a group of experts and Planning Commission with Sam Pitroda at the helm are intended to suggest quick-fix measures for reforming Railways. Accordingly, Sam Pitroda will oversee the next phase of expansion of Indian Railways. UT Independent learns that the Prime Minister desires Indian Railways to expand, upgrade, modernise and grow on the pattern of the Chinese Railways.

In this connection, an official in the Railway Board said on condition of anonimity that railways in China grew four times faster than that of Indian Railways. He also maintained that Railways were over six times more energy efficient, most environmental friendly and emitting negligible carbon dioxide.

Already an expert panel led by FICCI Secretary General, Amit Mitra, has proposed business models of Indian Railways like innovative financing and key public private partnership models to work upon. The core group in PMO under Sam Pitroda is working to make Indian Railways a corporation to serve as social enterprise with an economic developmental role in order to make it centres of profit and engine of nation's growth. The Prime Minister has identified Indian Railways as a driver of infrastructural growth and wants it to expand, modernise and make it engine of growth in the country's next phase of development.

The Ministry of Railways has had a plethora of expert committees having already suggested various modules of reforms, prominent among such committees being Sarin Committee on Railway Reforms, Prakash Tondon Committee, Poulus Committee on Financial Reforms, Hassan Iqbal Committee on making Indian Railways Profit Centres, Rakesh Mohan Committee on Railway Reforms, Khanna Committee on Railway Safety and so on. The latest kite flings emanate from Rakesh Mohan Committee Report.

The present drive is an offshoot of Rakesh Mohan Committee report having already recommended corporatisation of Indian Railways. This committee was appointed by Mamta Banerjee during her first incarnation as Minister of Railways in the NDA Government of A.B.Bajpaiy when during 2000-01 the operating ratio had reached the brink of collapse. As a result, the Railways deferred payment of annual dividend to the General Exchequer and Rakesh Mohan Committee came into being to suggest reforms to avoid brinkmanship or disaster in future. The Committee had recommended, among others, corporatisation of Indian Railways, pumping in more than Rs.66, 000 crores to bring the Railways within the fold of market economy in order to save it from imminent disaster. Rakesh Mohan, then Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, is a well known supporter of free market economy and globalisation.

If only Rakesh Mohan Committee report would have been implemented, both operational costs and tariff would have gone up considerably in keeping with the market driven imperatives to make Indian Railways beyond the reach of common people. And in our country where 83 crores of our people subsist on Rs.20 a day as per the latest World Bank Development Report, rise in tariff would have been the most counterproductive, given the fact that other modes of transportation are out of bounds for the general public. Proponents of globalisation of Indian economy would do well to reconcile the high growth rate of economy with still increasing number of the poor in the country during the ongoing globalisation by maintaining the existing social responsibility of the Indian Railways.

Meanwhile, the all round modernisation of Indian Railways including unigauge policy set in motion by C.K.Jaffer Sharief in Narasimha Rao Government together with Special Railway Safety Fund and National Rail Vikas Yojana introduced by Nitish Kumar during Atal Behari Bajpayie Government started fructifying in the form of increased efficiency, safety, augmentation of capacity and upgradation that came on platter to Lalu Prasad to make Indian Railways turn around making it financially viable and self reliant in addition to the circumstantial factors. That too without increasing passenger fare!

As a matter of fact, private sector has been wary of investing in high capital intensive railways. Their interest lies in get-quick-rich investment; whereas gestation period between investment and fructification of returns in the railways, on an average, takes seven to ten years, making the latest technology based investment redundant and financially unviable, a sure disincentive to private sector investments. All initiatives taken by the Union Government since the process of globalisation of Indian economy began in July 1991 right from 'own your wagon scheme' to public private partnership have come a cropper. Only multi national companies show interest, that also on their own terms. This means the Government must make huge investments in the railways without diluting its social responsibility. After all, in the scheme of the Constitution of India and the democratic rule of law based system of governance, people are the sovereign masters as they elect the Government of the day. In view of this, Government has no business to barter away the people's right to travel cost effectively and comfortably.

People of India want the Railways to run efficiently with attendant safety, security and cost effectiveness. Corporatisation or privatisation is certainly not the solution! Railways needed to be retained in public sector. Only its management and investment policy needed to be taken care of. It has no comparison with the telecom revolution. There is no private investor forthcoming. And the much talked about hype of upgradation of Indian Railways by the proponents of globalisation is a ploy for its corporatisation, which must be resisted at all costs!#