Ashutosh Kumar Banerji

The services of the Railways could be streamlined by splitting them into separate corridors, with the heavy haul freight corridor separated from the existing network, and the latter developed to specialise in fast passenger services. The new dedicated freight corridor should operate with a new generation of high productivity, high-speed freight cars and connect the points of generation of traffic with the consumption centres through the shortest route bypassing urban conglomerates.

THERE are indications that in the coming years, the Indian economy is poised to grow at a blistering pace. It is difficult to assign any numbers, but on a conservative estimate, a sustained 9 per cent growth in GDP is within the realms of possibility.

On the flip side, power generation and transport capacity could be the stumbling blocks in realising the growth potential. For a 9 per cent growth in GDP, the transport sector, mainly comprising road, rail and shipping sectors need to display a 10 per cent growth.

A quick review of the investment decisions would indicate that while road and ports have in the recent past made quite a few positive moves, the Railways have been beset with complacency, and their action plan is somewhat blurred.

The matrix of traffic moved by the Railways comprise a divergent assortment of commuter, stopping passenger, long distance mail/express, heavy haul freight and container services.

These operate on the same network, around 80 per cent thereof in the heavily saturated golden quadrilateral, connecting the four metropolitan cities. An elementary study of the rail transport mechanism would reveal that the infrastructural requirements for the various services rendered by the Railways are not quite similar. As a result, investments made in the last five decades have no doubt substantially enhanced the transport capacity of the Railways, but have generated an amorphous infrastructure that is not optimised for any particular service, and is at best a compromise.

There is thus, a viewpoint that the services provided by the railways should be split into separate corridors, so that the investments are focussed upon developing an infrastructure that is optimised for the particular set of services rendered by that corridor.

To begin with, the heavy haul freight corridor should be separated from the existing network, and the latter should, over the years, be developed to specialise in fast passenger services. The Railways has opted for one of the widest gauges in the world; yet, the productivity of the wagons is rather poor.

This is ascribable to a rather restrictive moving dimensions coupled with a large wheel diameter. As a result, the cost of bulk transportation of commodities such as coal, iron ore, cement, food grains and fertilisers is much higher than in the US.

The new dedicated freight corridor should as such be constructed to liberalised moving dimensions, permitting operation of a new generation of high productivity freight cars designed for 30-tonne axle load at speeds of 100 kmph.

This dedicated freight corridor should connect the points of generation of traffic with the consumption centres through the shortest route bypassing urban conglomerates.

Modern signalling and communication systems could be built into the corridor. A preliminary study would indicate that a network of around 9,600 km at a cost of Rs 5 crore per km would fulfill the initial requirements. Container traffic in India has grown from 0.7 million TEUs in 1990 to 3.9 million TEUs now. In the next three years, it is expected to reach a level of 7 million TEUs. A relentless growth of 10 per cent per annum is expected in the foreseeable future.

Basically, this growth is triggered by judicious investments in the port sector. A twin-pronged strategy of expanding container berthing and handling capacity in the existing ports and commissioning of new ports with modern facilities, particularly in Gujarat, has facilitated this growth.

Capability of evacuating containers from the port and distributing these to the hinterland is now the limiting condition in sustainable growth of traffic, rather than the intrinsic handling capacity in the ports.

To illustrate this, of the present level of 3.9 million TEUs, as much as 2.26 million TEUs is emanating from JNPT Port. According to a World Bank study, out of the 4,000 containers required to be evacuated from this port per day, the Railways are able to take out only 1,000 containers.

This is leading to heavy inventories in the port and as a consequence evacuation by the road sector has to be resorted to. This is not a cost-effective option.

Appropriate investments as such are needed to create rail transport capacity for evacuation from the ports as well as bringing in containers from the hinterland to the port, with capabilities matching the actual traffic.

There seems to be no alternative, but to construct a dedicated freight-cum-container corridor capable of moving double stack containers.

This corridor constructed to liberalised moving dimensions with an investment of around Rs 5,500 crore would be able to pay back the investment in a reasonable time.

India is favourably positioned in the international maritime route connecting the West with the Far East. The critical points between the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans are the Panama Canal in the West and the Straits of Malacca in the East. The maritime route connecting Europe to the Far East can be substantially decongested through land bridges across the Indian and the Indo-Chinese Peninsula.

Despite four transhipments, the land bridges, if serviced by fast rail connections, can turn out to be a cheaper alternative.

In this context, the port connectivity through the Railway network has immense potential.

A consortium of port authorities, Shipping Ministry, container operators, Indian Railways and the private sector could be formed, which would initiate the necessary follow-up action relating to route survey, preparation of detailed project report, securing of funds and selecting agencies for execution and monitoring of the project.

This project brooks no delay if India has to pick up a fair share of international and domestic container traffic.

(The author is a former General Manager, Central Railway.)

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu Business Line