No Preferential Treatment To Private Train Operators, Says Railway Board Chairman

Railway Board chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav is helming the Indian Railways at a time when it is undergoing the biggest transformation. He speaks to Jyotika Sood about where the rail transport is headed.

Q) Could you elaborate on Indian Railways Private train business?
Most of the private operators would come in the premium segment. If they are able to take care of the premium segment, Indian Railways will be in a position to provide more services to the common man because we have our own limitations. At present, we are running around 13,000 passenger trains and in the next 5 years, we would require an additional 3,000 to 4,000 trains to meet the demand. We need private train operators to take some burden.

Regarding private trains, I would like to clarify that trains are classified into Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto, Mail, Express and suburban categories and there are clear guidelines which train has to get precedence. So, the private operator won’t have any first right of way and precedence for the trains – be it private or government-run – would be according to railway guidelines only. And 150 trains from a network of 13,000 is virtually nothing.
I would also like to point out that private trains would be run by loco-pilots (engine drivers) and guards from Indian Railways only.

I would like to point out that IRCTC business of private trains is drawing a very good response and occupancy is likely to increase more as passengers get accustomed to new train timings.

Q) Could you share some names of the players interested in running private trains?
We already have had two meetings for consultations. Some participants in these meetings were from Bombardier, Talgo, Hyundai, Hitachi, Adani, Siemens, I-Squared Capital, Equitas, Tata and Macquarie to name a few.

Q) Railway restructuring is one of the biggest reforms. Where are you on it?
We are in the process of transition. It has three components. One is the reduction of railway board members from 8 to 4. Since two board member seats are vacant and another existing board member is retiring on January 31 this is taken care of and we just need to re-allocate work. Second is recruitment to Indian Railways Management Services (IRMS) and recruitment for 2021 is stopped and modalities on how to recruit IRMS are already being finalized with DoPT and UPSC.

Coming to the third, which is facing opposition is cadre merging. Everybody is scared of uncertainty and it is true there is no clarity on how it will happen although the government has given us one year to work out modalities. I agree some will gain and some will lose, but everybody knows it is inevitable and is much-needed transformation.

The idea of two-cadre– technical and non-technical – being suggested by most railway experts was discussed but the objection raised against it was that if eight cadres are creating the problem, two cadres will create more problem. So Union Cabinet decided to have one service comprising both – technical and non-technical personnel. In fact, Group B employees are supporting us completely and we have that in writing too.

Q) Has the Railways finances improved?
The operating ratio (OR is money spent by Railways to earn Rs 100) is currently under severe stress and we are hopeful of improving it till the end of the this fiscal. Our biggest expenditure of Rs 50,000 crore is for railway employee pensions. If that is removed the OR would be around 72-75% which is quite good. We have requested the finance ministry to start sharing the pension burden and are hopeful that something might come up soon.

Also, we are experimenting with AC-III tier which is the most profitable segment for us. In some trains, we are trying to accommodate waiting list AC-III tier passengers by replacing the AC coach with sleeper if the latter is having less occupancy.

Q) What is your vision for Indian Railways?
Increasing number of passenger trains by 3000-4000 with support of private participation. Introducing higher-speed trains. More infrastructure investment including dedicated freight corridors are being planned and being worked upon. Good news is that this is the first year when we will be commissioning 1000 km and dedicated freight corridor will be functional by December 2021. We have shortlisted around 3000 km of high-speed and dedicated freight corridors and DPRs are underway that would be undertaken through Public-Private Partnership or by funding from agencies like World Bank, ADB and JICA. Our consultancy firm RITES is working on a plan for corporatization of Railways and report is expected to be submitted in 3 months. We are focusing on non-fare revenue options which include content on-demand that alone will give us Rs 68 crore a year, railway display network for advertisement on stations, etc to name a few. We are also planning big in solar power generation for railways to make it zero carbon emission by 2030 and creating solar power of around 20 giga watts. We are on right track and the difference would be visible in coming years.