Doing a Dr. Beeching on Indian Railways ! (The Pioneer 22.02.02. )

Doing a Dr. Beeching on Indian Railways ! (The Pioneer 22.02.02. )

Nearly 4 decades ago a Dr. Beeching, Chairman of the Chemical and Pharmaceutical giant ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries), was tapped to head the then ailing British Rail with a clear mandate to get it firmly back on the rails. A renowned management expert known for carrying out a similar task at ICI, Dr. Beeching lost no time in identifying the loss making branch lines to be closed down. Like the Indian Railways the British Rail also had been a conglomerate of a number of rail Companies and as such had also ended up having duplicate maintenance facilities. These were also identified and work load rationalised so that economies of scale could be achieved.

While the latter was a relatively easy task, involving local labour unions who appreciated that relocation of workers was a better option to losing their jobs, closing down unremunerative lines was slightly more complicated. Notices had to be issued to city and town councils which were going to be affected by the termination of services, alternative means of transport determined and put in place, before the plan could be given effect to. However inspite of having to face considerable flak from the electorate the political leadership stood by the plan, though in the process Dr. Beeching became the most unpopular man in the shires.

Perhaps taking a page from Dr. Beeching’s plan, in 1969 Indian Railways too got around setting up a committee to take a close look at the branch lines, especially the Narrow gauge sections most of which had been a legacy of the Princely States and had been losing from the day they were commissioned. Definition of a Branch line first enunciated by this committee included all Narrow gauge lines and such of the Broad gauge and Metre gauge lines which join the mainline network at one end only.

Perceived as a status symbol, Princely states of Saurashtra, Gwalior, Baroda had opted for their own Narrow gauge systems though bigger States such as Mysore and Hyderabad preferred it to be part of the greater Meter or Broad gauge network, built by major companies viz. Southern Railways or in the case of Hyderabad, the Nizam Railway.

No less than 3 high-level committees have over the years recommended that where alterative modes of transport exist, all such un-economical branch lines should be promptly closed down. Unfortunately the State governments have time and again dragged their feet over closing down a transport facility which they do not have to pay for either to maintain or operate.

In Part XI of their reports on 'Economics' (October 1983), the Railway Reforms Committee had recommended that 40 such lines where adequate alternative Road infrastructure are available and 17 such lines in Gujarat where alternative Road infrastructure could be developed, should be closed down. In case the State governments did not agree for closure for their own reasons they should be forced to share the losses with the Railways on a 50:50 basis.

In 1998-99 no less than 114 un-economic branch lines had incurred a loss of Rs. 328 crores. One year later on there were still 110 such lines, 44 on Broad, 44 on Metre and 22 on the Narrow gauge, which between them incurred a loss Rs. 348 crores, a loss which with rising staff wages and operating costs is likely to increase with every passing year.

Some of these branch lines range from from the massive 1007 kms. long Satpura section on South Eastern Railways which alone lost a whopping of Rs. 71.6 crores in 1999-2000, making this 'Blue chip' Railway (with the highest revenue) to the top of the league with nearly Rs.140 crores loss, almost 40% of the total loss on un-economic branch lines, to a mere 4 km. long stretch From Kalyani to Simanta.

However since some of the narrow gauge lines pass through mostly backward and less developed regions, leave alone closing them conversion to Broad gauge has been proposed during the last decade.

In ‘92-‘93 the 242 kms. long Gondia-Chanda fort section was sanctioned at cost of Rs. 232 crores followed by 285 kms. long Jabalpur-Gondia including Balaghat-Katangi section costing Rs. 386 crores in 1996-97.

The day the entire stretch from Jabalpur to Gondia gets commissioned

as a Broad gauge line, the Satpura line will no longer feature in the list of uneconomic branch lines, even if it continues to adversely effect South Eastern Railway’s bottom line.

Unfortunately there are now enough precedents for any Minister for Railways to please the legislators looking for a mega handout for his or her constituency which has a NG line ! No less than 9 NG lines totaling 575 kms. on the Western Railway alone are waiting for a messiah from Gujarat to try and breath life into them, at the cost of the overall health of the IR's 64,000 kms. long network !