Quo vadis
From a rail-dominant economy in the "50s, India has now become a road-dominant one, with a steady decline in the railways share in the national passenger and freight traffic since the "80s.
In absolute terms, movement by rail has been rising. But the share of rail transport in the total national transport volume has come down. Let me explain. Earlier, the railways carried 60 out of 100 units of the total passenger and freight movements, and the roads took the rest. When the" demand became 200 units, however, railways" share did not double to 120 units, but increased, say up to 90 units. And road passenger and freight output jumped from 40 to 110 units.
What are the IR"s priorities as-the country enters the 21st century?
To develop sufficient capacity to be able to exploit all the growing demand in goods traffic and passenger movement to the extent we can. We can never perhaps hope to meet the total passenger demand because of our huge population. But we should be able to meet these demands to a very great extent, and also provide comfortable and safe travel.
What are your immediate plans for modernisation and technology upgradation?
In electrification, so far we have had a single-wire system of 25 KV AC traction. Now on some routes we have put a double wire which is 2 x 25 KV AC. We are also acquiring state-of-the-art 3-phase AC traction locomotives of 6,000 hp from the Switzerland-based ABB. At the same time, we have indigenously developed higher hp locomotives. Our standard electric locomotive earlier was about 3,900-4,000 hp, which has been upgraded to 5,000 hp. We are also importing very advanced, fuel efficient, high speed diesel locomotives through a deal signed with the General Motors, USA.
It appears that IR is emphasising more on importation of advanced technology G K Khare rather than encouraging in-house R&D.
No. We have made some technological improvements through in-house R&D. For example, we are developing a coach which can run at 160 kmph, and also a freight wagon which can run at 100 kmph. But in areas where a quantum jump in high quality technology is required, we are importing advanced technology.
The Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) has been allocated a paltry annual budget ofRs 20 crore. Do you expect it to ever make a substantive technological contribution?
At present, the RDSO is doing what may be called applied research. Hence, we feel that the amount allocated to it is all right. But in case it does come up with some concrete projects of great relevance, then we can finance these. A governing council meets once a year and reviews all RDSO projects. But probably it is not monitored as closely as it should be, because RDSO"S working does not affect the railways" functioning too much. Our attention is taken up more by day-to-day operations.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on railways has criticised IR for a deal with ABB, agreeing to a 10-year transition period for technology transfer for the indigenous manufacture of the 6,000 hp locos, by which time it will become obsolete. Secondly, each ABB loco costs Rs 40 crore, while the Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd (BHEL) has developed a 5,000 hp locomotive at one-seventh the cost. How do you justify this?
The ABB locos are considered to be of highly advanced technology and would not become obsolete for some time. The deal has been discussed and debated for a few years now. As far as I know, BHEL, had also quoted for this type of locomotive and their cost was slightly lower. But they were found to be technically less advanced.
There is an internal study of the IR which makes a comparative analysis of diesel and electric traction, and says that diesel traction works out to be much cheaper, in India as well as abroad. What is the IR"s stand on the issue?
Firstly, I am not really familiar with the study that you have mentioned. Electrification is indeed capital -intensive, but there is some saving in the running, energy and maintenance costs. We follow a certain procedure while taking a decision for electrifying a particular sector. Wherever traffic density is very high, and savings in runnings, energy and maintenance costs are able to balance the capital expenditure at that break-even point, we conclude that electrification is financially viable. Our present statistics show that electric traction does have some saving.
Railways is considered to be the most environmentally benign mode of transportation. Western countries are wooing passengers away from the road sector through increasing speed and other consumer benefits. Are we also thinking of high-speed corridors for very fast trains?
Our effort is to make rail travel more comfortable and faster. For short distance traffic on branch lines which are uneconomical for both us and the passengers, we would not mind if people prefer to travel by road. But w is still the most preferred mode of transport for middle and long distances. We do not have any plans for very high speed corridors as yet. But we have plans to run the Shatabdi trains at more than 140 kmph, for medium distances such as Delhi -Chandigarh, or Delhi-Lucknow. Here, more and more passengers previously using cars or planes have now shifted towards rail travel.
Is there any collaboration or joint endeavour between the ministry of railways and the ministry of surface transport to ensure that people opt for the railways as the preferred mode for passenger and freight transport?
There is no such formal coordination. As a matter of fact, the railways is unable to carry, economically, and efficiently, small and piecemeal traffic. So, we are concentrating on carrying a full-train load or bulk freight traffic, which is taking up most of the capacity of the railways. But we. have also set up a company, called the Container Corporation of India, with the aim of drawing high rate, more profit-yielding piecemeal freight traffic from road to railways. Though the bulk of this traffic still goes by road, yet we have been able to make some dent.
Most accidents in the recent past have been attributed to human failures. What are the steps that the IR is taking to ensure that such errors are eliminated?
Accidents such as the Ferozabad disaster occurred in August 1995 because of human error. Though our present system already has some track circuiting and automation, we still have certain segments where human dependency is significant. We are making the system even more automatic, that is, we are circuiting the tracks, which means that if a line is occupied, the signal cannot be taken off for that line.