Doing a Dr. Beeching on Indian Railways !
(The Pioneer 22.02.02. )
Nearly 4 decades ago a Dr. Beeching, Chairman of the Chemical and
Pharmaceutical giant ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries), was tapped to
head the then ailing British Rail with a clear mandate to get it firmly
back on the rails. A renowned management expert known for carrying out
a similar task at ICI, Dr. Beeching lost no time in identifying the
loss making branch lines to be closed down. Like the Indian Railways
the British Rail also had been a conglomerate of a number of rail
Companies and as such had also ended up having duplicate maintenance
facilities. These were also identified and work load rationalised so
that economies of scale could be achieved.
While the latter was a relatively easy task, involving local labour
unions who appreciated that relocation of workers was a better option
to losing their jobs, closing down unremunerative lines was slightly
more complicated. Notices had to be issued to city and town councils
which were going to be affected by the termination of services,
alternative means of transport determined and put in place, before the
plan could be given effect to. However inspite of having to face
considerable flak from the electorate the political leadership stood
by the plan, though in the process Dr. Beeching became the most
unpopular man in the shires.
Perhaps taking a page from Dr. Beeching’s plan, in 1969 Indian Railways
too got around setting up a committee to take a close look at the
branch lines, especially the Narrow gauge sections most of which had
been a legacy of the Princely States and had been losing from the day
they were commissioned. Definition of a Branch line first enunciated by
this committee included all Narrow gauge lines and such of the Broad
gauge and Metre gauge lines which join the mainline network at one end
only.
Perceived as a status symbol, Princely states of Saurashtra, Gwalior,
Baroda had opted for their own Narrow gauge systems though bigger
States such as Mysore and Hyderabad preferred it to be part of the
greater Meter or Broad gauge network, built by major companies viz.
Southern Railways or in the case of Hyderabad, the Nizam Railway.
No less than 3 high-level committees have over the years recommended
that where alterative modes of transport exist, all such un-economical
branch lines should be promptly closed down. Unfortunately the State
governments have time and again dragged their feet over closing down
a transport facility which they do not have to pay for either to
maintain or operate.
In Part XI of their reports on 'Economics' (October 1983), the Railway
Reforms Committee had recommended that 40 such lines where adequate
alternative Road infrastructure are available and 17 such lines in
Gujarat where alternative Road infrastructure could be developed,
should be closed down. In case the State governments did not agree for
closure for their own reasons they should be forced to share the losses
with the Railways on a 50:50 basis.
In 1998-99 no less than 114 un-economic branch lines had incurred a
loss of Rs. 328 crores. One year later on there were still 110 such
lines, 44 on Broad, 44 on Metre and 22 on the Narrow gauge, which
between them incurred a loss Rs. 348 crores, a loss which with rising
staff wages and operating costs is likely to increase with every
passing year.
Some of these branch lines range from from the massive 1007 kms. long
Satpura section on South Eastern Railways which alone lost a whopping
of Rs. 71.6 crores in 1999-2000, making this 'Blue chip' Railway (with
the highest revenue) to the top of the league with nearly Rs.140 crores
loss, almost 40% of the total loss on un-economic branch lines, to a
mere 4 km. long stretch From Kalyani to Simanta.
However since some of the narrow gauge lines pass through mostly
backward and less developed regions, leave alone closing them
conversion to Broad gauge has been proposed during the last decade.
In ‘92-‘93 the 242 kms. long Gondia-Chanda fort section was sanctioned
at cost of Rs. 232 crores followed by 285 kms. long Jabalpur-Gondia
including Balaghat-Katangi section costing Rs. 386 crores in 1996-97.
The day the entire stretch from Jabalpur to Gondia gets commissioned
as a Broad gauge line, the Satpura line will no longer feature in the
list of uneconomic branch lines, even if it continues to adversely
effect South Eastern Railway’s bottom line.
Unfortunately there are now enough precedents for any Minister for
Railways to please the legislators looking for a mega handout for his
or her constituency which has a NG line ! No less than 9 NG lines
totaling 575 kms. on the Western Railway alone are waiting for a
messiah from Gujarat to try and breath life into them, at the cost of
the overall health of the IR's 64,000 kms. long network !