Title - Railway Budget: A WISH LIST

Railway budget is round the corner and expectations in the State are high. Orissa Government is giving final touches to the memorandum to be submitted to Railway Ministry. Around the same time, railways have come up with revised estimates for 2012-13. The plan outlay of East Coast Railway stands at 822.16 crore, the lowest amongst all zonal railways. Taking out the lease payment, the effective outlay for the year comes to Rs 571 crore. This is how Indian Railways treats the highest surplus generating and the most efficient zonal railway. East Coast Railway used to be among the bottom three in terms of plan outlay since 2004. But being at the bottom is a distinction in itself. Looking at the details, it gets only Rs 46.96 crore for construction of new lines, the lowest in five years. It means the total money available for Lanjigarh Road-Junagarh, Khurda Road-Balangir and Talcher-Bimlagarh new line projects is only Rs 46.96 crore. Similarly the allocation for doubling works is pegged at Rs 127.8 crore, down from Rs 229.5 crore at the budget estimates stage. One may assume that this is the case with all zonal railways given the financial condition of railways. But this is incorrect. Plan outlays for most railways are either intact or even enhanced. It has to be kept in mind that more than half of railway’s plan expenditure is financed from budgetary support provided by the Centre. Another 25 per cent comes from bonds. Funds from both the sources have more than doubled in the past four years.  Hence what ails East Coast Railway which largely serves our State? Why does it get extremely low allocation year after year in spite of being the biggest contributor to keeping Indian Railways financially viable? These questions need to be answered before a memorandum for the next railway budget is prepared.

There are two major reasons for consistent low plan allocation for East Coast Railway (ECoR). First the general approach of Railway Ministry towards ECoR as a freight railway which would transport goods and earn surpluses. The surpluses in turn would subsidise losses in other railways and finance works for better amenities in other States. Hence every new investment right from introduction of a new train and its route to construction of new lines and doubling works to providing traffic facilities and passenger amenities is seen from the freight lens. The second reason is the small shelf of projects under plan heads new lines and gauge conversion. No new lines have been sanctioned since 2003. Similarly ECoR and for that matter Orissa never had a major stake in the massive gauge conversion programnme which took a large chunk of the capital invested. Most of the doubling works in Orissa are being financed from extra budgetary resources and hence has hardly any relationship with the budget. Unless four to five new line works are sanctioned, a small shelf of two new line projects (Khurda Road-Balangir and Talcher-Bimlagarh) won’t be able to absorb higher levels of investment. One major operational reason for low plan expenditure in some areas is the highly understaffed nature of ECoR that forces officials to remain busy in floating outsourcing tenders and finalizing contracts.

The other major areas that require attention are consistently low investments under plan heads passenger amenities, workshops including production units and staff amenities. The expenditure for providing passenger amenities averaged around Rs 20 crore whereas the same for Eastern Railway has been Rs 140 crore for the past two years. In fact SECR headquartered at Bilaspur gets much higher under passenger amenities head. This is reflected in the state of our stations and platforms. Similarly big ticket investments for workshops and production units have gone into Bihar, Bengal, Maharashtra and Raebareli. Interestingly political parties in Orissa are quarrelling over lollipops like PPP wagon factory in which State Govt. will provide land and private companies will put in the money. The biggest freight loader of the country does not have a wagon POH/IOH shop. On staff amenities front, ECoR has the dubious distinction of having the lowest bedded central hospital.

Given the above facts, a memorandum for railways should have following components. One, five new line works namely Junagarh-Nabarangpur-Jeypore, Jeypore-Malkangiri, Rayagada-Gopalpur, Brahmapur-Phulbani and Kendujhargarh-Badampahar should be sanctioned. No new line work has been sanctioned on economic considerations in the country in the last nine rail budgets. Hence there is no need to vouch for or impress about economic viability citing upcoming steel and power plants. Two, estimates for the entire 289 km section of Khurda-Balangir need to be sanctioned immediately. This is the biggest impediment in early execution of the project. If that happens, it can absorb Rs 200-300 crore annually. On the PPP front, Haridaspur-Paradeep project has finally taken off and we can expect a higher outlay. A fresh bankability study of Angul-Sukinda has been ordered and hence token outlay is expected. Third, on the doubling front most of the projects under ECoR jurisdiction are being financed from extra budgetary resources and handed over to RVNL. RVNL’s ability to raise funds determines the fate of these projects. However, higher allocations to the tune of Rs. 80-100 crore should be provided for Delang-Puri and Sambalpur-Talcher projects. It would be futile to ask higher allocation for Brundamal-Jharsuguda and Bhadrak-Nergundi as both projects have not moved beyond the drawing board. Doubling projects of South Eastern Railway serving iron ore areas have moved faster and they do not require State Government’s push.

The memorandum should clearly focus on time bound improvement in passenger amenities like high level platforms, full length platform shelters in A1, A, B and D category stations, concrete and tiled platform surfaces, better lighting, foot over bridges (FOBs) and toilets. FOBs sanctioned five to six years ago are languishing for want of funds. None of these requires land and State Government’s cooperation.

On new trains, the thrust should be on long distance and inter city services instead of Durontos. A new daily superfast service between Bhubaneswar and New Delhi, a daily service between Bhubaneswar and Mumbai via Sambalpur, biweekly services between Bhawanipatna and Allahabad via Sambalpur, Puri-Jammu Tawi and Bhubaneswar-Dibrugarh should be prioritised. Three intercity services namely Bhawanipatna-Sambalpur-Rourkela, Gunupur-Brahmapur-Bhubaneswar and Paradeep-Sambalpur would take care of the needs of western, southern and central Orissa. Two services namely Baripada-Koraput via Vizianagaram and Baripada-Bhawanipatna via Angul would greatly improve connectivity within the State.

Investments under workshops plan head should be substantially hiked. A locomotive workshop and a wagon repair shop should be demanded instead of concrete sleeper plants and PPP wagon factories. A 200 bedded new central hospital and two sub divisional railway hospitals at Angul and Titlagarh should be proposed for better healthcare facilities to railway staff. Orissa gives the most to railways and deserves the best from railways.    Barna Baibhaba Panda