With another Budget around the corner, an increased allocation of up to 20 per cent in capital expenditure for the coming fiscal is hinted at by the Railway Ministry. The good news is also that the funds allocated on this count were mostly utilized during the fiscal 24-25 with projects in the PPP mode. A projection is that capital expenditure allocation for railways could increase to more than Rs 3 lakh crore from the present fiscal’s `2.65 lakh crore. While appreciating such steps, the realities on the ground cannot be ignored. It must be emphasized that the government has not accorded due priority to the railways and for its development over the past several decades. What was once the largest profit-making government entity has, over the years, been degraded in multiple respects.
Notably, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi got into the central saddle in 2014, one of his first acts by way of reform was to do away with the separate Rail budget, which had been the practice all through. The hefty allocations were packed into the general budget. Looking back, this has not changed the fortunes of the railways significantly. Perhaps this was a wrong step. The promise of introducing bullet trains with high speed is yet to materialize but its work is ongoing as a pilot project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
Another promise was to increase the speed of the express trains, which linked most parts of the country on a daily basis. There have been only marginal improvements to rail speed overall; this remains at around 140 km per hour at best. Replacement of old tracks with new ones is a matter of first priority to increase the speed. This involves heavy costs. Since the railway sector was ignored by governments, this by itself would be a gargantuan task. As for new trains and comfort, the Vande Bharat came as an improvement but this is by no means a big change both in speed and comfort. No miracles in the railways sector need be expected in the coming four years of Modi, but the first bullet train project might come to fruition in the near future. When technology is developing rapidly the nation of 1.4 billion moves at snail’s pace and is not able to catch up with others, including China, where the age of Maglev – magnetic levitation – trains promise a speed of up to 1000km per hour. Japan ran bullet trains with a speed of 300km per hour some 25 years ago. India, over the past quarter of a century since the time of Atal Behari Vajpayee, gave eminent emphasis on developing the national highways. Modi continued with this process and produced good results. This, however, should not be at the cost of the railways – the gift of the British Raj – which allowed mass transport over long distances at relatively cheap rates.
