Prabhu Sets Ball Rolling Within Two Months of Taking Charge

Ravindra Singh, NEW DELHI: 

Handpicked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to overhaul the cash-strapped Railways, Minister for Railways Suresh Prabhu in a record of sorts has set up seven Committees in just two months of holding the portfolio to improve the financial health, transparency, revenue generation and restructuring of the public sector giant.

Prabhu, who was brought in to replace Karnataka strongman D V Sadanada Gowda, has set the ball rolling ahead of the 2015 Railway Budget. Gowda had also constituted a Committee in September. Of the total eight Committees, four are headed by outside experts like economist Bibek Debroy, former CAG Vinod Rai, metroman E Sreedharan and former Union Secretary D K Mittal.

Trying to get funds for the Railways, the government earlier this year allowed 100 per cent FDI in the Railways, which created a bit of a controversy, forcing the PM to clarify that the government had no plans to privatise the Railways.

The FDI in Railways was strongly criticised by the rail unions and the government came out with specific sectors making it clear that the operational part would remain with the state-run carrier. Prabhu also held an ‘Investors Meet” to discuss various issues pertaining to private investment in the rail sector.

One of the first major decisions announced by the BJP-NDA Government was the increase in rail fares in June, just before the Rail Budget, on the pretext that it was mooted by the UPA Government as part of the Fuel Adjustment Component (FAC) policy. The BJP- NDA Government stayed away from reviewing the rail fare due in December 2014, and an announcement is now expected in 2015.

The ministry, meanwhile, has been actively pursuing Modi’s dream project of a diamond quadrilateral of high-speed trains/bullet trains. China and Japan have already offered their expertise in this sector. Another major decision was to increase the speed of trains on nine key routes across the country, and the first between Delhi-Agra will be flagged off soon.

Another piece of good news was the inauguration of long-pending rail links to Jammu and Kashmir and the NorthEast by the Prime Minister himself, thus sending a message that the government would further improve rail connectivity in far-flung regions.

The ministry has underscored the need to improve passenger services and amenities. Emphasis was also laid on use of IT tools to improve the passenger services.

Wi-fi services were launched at the New Delhi and Bengaluru Railway stations, with trials for providing the facility being undertaken on board a few trains. Infotainment service to provide access to live TV to passengers was also launched in two Shatabdi trains.