Apropos The Great Railway Bazaar (Apr 02), any article on the railways would unfortunately reflect the bias of the railway “source” feeding the information. As there are so many departments, each holding on to their empire, it ends up being like the story of the elephant and the ten blind men. For instance, why have a member, PPP, when you have a full-fledged procurement department dealing in contracts; why have a member, safety, when you have hundreds of safety officers under member, transportation. While it is correct to question the logic of using PPPs in the area of rolling stock manufacture (Mamata saw through the game and mercifully stopped it in time), it has its place in station upkeep, development of railway land (and not on the first-come, first-served basis popularised by modern kings). Sam Pitroda or other experts go only by the superficial inputs of interested parties. There are enough reports based on intensive analysis (the RRC report of Scindia’s time, for instance, or the Sarin committee). The new expert committees should do only a desk review of such old reports.
Santhanam Krishnan, on e-mail
The working of the Rail Land Development Authority, created specifically to unlock value from the railways’ immense land bank and raise resources for modernisation, seems jinxed. The first tender in Sarai Rohilla in Delhi ran smack into the global crisis; the successful bidder was unable to meet the payment schedule and the site had to be readvertised. In Mumbai, the rlda expected Rs 4,000 crore from a commercial plot in Bandra, way above what the developers felt was fair value and the tender fizzled out. Later, the collector ruled that the plot belonged to the state government, something that is being resolved. Post Adarsh, it was decreed that all proposals for alienation of central government land would require cabinet approval, which would add to the rlda’s timeline for disposal.
Ashok Lal, Mumbai
Your story has a line—“within the Planning Commission, questions have been raised about changing of contract terms to benefit General Electric”. We would like to clarify that GE is a bidder for the loco manufacturing unit project and no terms have ever been changed to offer GE any differential benefit vis-a-vis other bidders. This is a baseless insinuation against GE and we hope you will do the necessary in dispelling such false notions.
Pratyush Kumar, President & CEO, GE Transportation, South Asia
I am a lawyer and have filed a whistle-blower petition against GE in the Delhi High Court on the issue of corruption in rail tenders for the Madhepura and Marhowa locomotive factories. Taking cognisance of the civil writ petition (No. 1280/2012), the court had on March 7, 2012, issued notice to GE, the PMO, the CBI, CVC, the Railway board and the Delhi police.
Seema Sapra, Delhi
The basic flaw of the railways is that it is overstaffed by around a million hands. This huge workforce is eating up 40 per cent of the revenues, leaving nothing for safety and improvement of services. The only way out is rightsizing the workforce, infusing capital to augment safety and allowing the private sector into all sectors. Fears over this are unfounded. Look at Bangladesh. It has privatised its railways and everything is running smooth.
Rajiv Chacko, Bangalore
The railways is a natural monopoly. It works best if run as an integrated system. Its functions cannot be privatised in piecemeal fashion.
M.K. Saini, Delhi
It would be naive to think that the extra revenue generated by the hike in rail fares that was proposed would’ve been spent wisely on increasing safety and providing better amenities! Good intentions do not necessarily translate into good implementation, at least not with this government.
Praveen Kumar, Thane
You cite the cases of privatisation of Delhi’s power utility and the modern IGIA airport to buttress the point of the “consumer paying a high price”. I don’t think those who remember life with the DESU and the old IGIA are complaining.
Ramkumar, Amsterdam
The railways have to take some hard decisions ASAP—give Railway Board members, GMs freedom to take decisions without interference from ministry/ministers and make them accountable; prepare a five-year plan to convert IR into Indian Railways Corporation so that it can raise money from the capital market for expansion, modernisation etc. And as a first step, immediately raise fares.
Narendra M. Apte, Pune
Presumably those BPL citizens earning less than Rs 29 a day will either walk or be ‘subsidised’.
Harsh Rai Puri, Bhopal
