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Why run these unremunerative branch lines?

R. C. Acharya

ANY commercial organisation worth it salt when faced with mounting losses and a financial crunch would ruthlessly jettison all such activities which are un-remunerative. Unfortunately, the Indian Railways, the 1.7-million-strong behemoth which has for ye ars been shouting itself hoarse for closure of no less than 114 un-economic branch lines incurring a loss of Rs 328 crore in 1998-99, has not been able to make much headway on this front. There were still 110 such lines, 44 on broad gauge, 44 on metre an d 22 on narrow gauge, which among them made a loss Rs 348 crore last year; this figure is only likely to rise with each passing year what with increasing wages and operating costs.

Several high-level committees have, over the years, unanimously recommended that all such un-economical branch lines, where alternative modes of transport exist, be closed. The State governments, unfortunately, do not seem to care less and have been drag ging their feet over what is perceived by them as a transport facility which they do not have to pay for to maintain and operate.

The Railway Reforms Committee, in Part XI of its reports on Economics (October 1983), 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. In case the State governments do not agree for closure for their own reasons, they should share the losses with the Railways on a 50:50 basis.

A few years ago, the Railways issued instructions for closure or dismantling of 21 un-economic branch lines (15 out of 40 and four of 17 referred above, and two others). However, to enable the State governments close the remaining 38 lines, the Railways offered sweeteners for permanent closure of a section as a one-time financial assistance, which could be either for procurement of additional buses required for a section or for development/improvement of road infrastructure.

Though the branch lines, especially the narrow gauge sections, most of which are the legacy of the princely states, have been making losses from Day One, in 1969, the Railways had got around taking a close look, when a Committee on Uneconomic Branch Line s first enunciated the definition that all narrow gauge lines and such of the broad gauge and metre gauge lines which join the mainline network at one end only were to be considered as branch lines.

Perceived as a status symbol, the princely states of Saurashtra, Gwalior, and Baroda had opted for their own narrow gauge systems, though bigger States such as Mysore and Hyderabad preferred to be part of the greater metre or broad gauge network, built b y major companies such as Southern Railways or, in the case of Hyderabad, the Nizam Railway.

Some of these branch lines range from a mere 4-km stretch from Kalyani to Kalyani Simanta on the Eastern Railway's broad gauge network to the 1,007-km Satpura section on South Eastern Railways, which alone lost Rs 71.6 crore in 1999-2000, making this `bl ue chip' Railway (with the highest revenue) to the top of the league with nearly Rs 140 crore loss, almost 40 per cent of the total loss on un-economic branch lines.

However, since it goes through mostly backward and less developed regions, the conversion to broad gauge of the 242-km stretch in the Gondia-Chanda fort section at a cost of Rs 232 crore was sanctioned in 1992-93, followed by a nod for the 285-km Jabalpu r-Gondia line, that includes the Balaghat-Katangi section, costing Rs 386 crore in 1996-97. While Rs 241.32 crore has been sunk into Gondia-Chanda fort, which is now slated for completion, the Jabalpur-Gondia has still a long way to go. However, when the Jabalpur-Gondia stretch 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 bleed the South Eastern Railway dry.

Similarly, the 359-km Miraj-Latur section on Central Railway was also approved in 1993-94 for conversion to broad gauge at a cost of Rs 314 crore. But the paucity of funds has seen only about 25 per cent of the work completed. Another 90-km Nawpada-Gunup ur section, which lost Rs 2 crore in 1999-2000, was sanctioned for conversion at a cost of Rs 47 crore in 1997-98.

However, it has been a blatant act of subterfuge, which some of the Railway Ministers in the past have indulged in to circumvent the observations of the Railway Reforms Committee, and could be always trotted out as a precedent any Minister for Railways i n the years to come who chooses to please the legislators looking for a mega handout for his or her constituency, which has an NG line. For, at present, there are nine NG lines covering 575 km on the Western Railway alone waiting for Railway Minister fro m Gujarat to try and breath life into these at the cost of the overall health of the Indian Railway's 64,000-km-long network.

Another six sections totalling nearly 700 km all over India include the 327-km Kurduwadi-Miraj section, which would stake claim for conversion since the other side, that is, Miraj-Latur has already made it into the big league. Fortunately, three Hill Rai lways -- Neral-Matheran on the Central, Kalka-Simla on the Northern, and Siliguri-Darjeeling on North-Frontier, covering about 300 km -- even if losing propositions, would mercifully remain as narrow gauge since they are not only unique tourist attractio ns, but also would be prohibitively costly to be converted to broad gauge. Mettupalyam-Udhagamandalam (Ooty) on Southern Railway has so far been, and would, perhaps, remain a remunerative line.

Under the gauge conversion bonanza, States covered by the South Eastern Railway have been the major beneficiaries. Apart from the Satpura line which falls in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar (now Jharkhand) will also witness its 113-km-long Ranchi-Lohardaga narrow gauge line being converted to broad gauge at a cost of Rs 147 crore, a work again sanctioned in 1996-97 and now waiting for allocation of funds for early completion -- a mega folly which Ms. Mamata Banerjee refused to repeat in spite of intense political pressure brought on her by hordes of legislators, weeks before she presented her people-friendly Railway Budget.

The author is former member -- mechanical -- Railway Board.)