The Budget season in India is very unique for the fact that Indian Railways gets a space for itself in the discussion with its own, special budget. No wonders about this, considering that Indian Railways (IR) has one of the largest and most extensive networks of railroad infrastructure in the world criss-crossing entire India. Indian Railways is a typical example of an Indian bureaurcratic organisation. But what makes it an interesting subject for discussion is the two-way pull IR always keeps experiencing - the need for being like a typical governmental organisation with all it's inefficiencies and short-term populist measures on one hand, and the need for being nimble with the effort to provide the best amenities and leveraging technology for competing with the likes of low-cost airlines and road transport on the other.
Points to NoteThe highlights of the budget can be found
here. Some points that caught my attention:
- The Railway Vision 2025 document which will provide the long-term strategy of IR with a focus on "customer-centric modern passenger services and various freight schemes to sharpen the competitive edge of Railways". Comfort and convenience for passengers while commitment and connectivity for freight.
- Information Technology Vision 2012 focussing on the use of IT in the three core areas of freight service management, passenger service management and general management.
- SMS ticket, where the passenger can show his ticket on his mobile instead of carrying a physical ticket.
Some SuggestionsThe ideal situation would be when the entire service runs on the basis of demand-supply economics. This would be possible only if the government reduces its stake in the business and leaves the decision making authority in private hands, which is unlikely to happen anywhere in the next few decades.
- Give freedom to zonal managers to independently take decisions on the pricing and operational strategies for freight. Freight provides the lion's share of revenues and is the only reason why IR is able to subsidise and reduce the passenger fares while making profits at the same time. Optimising this service would help in maximising the profits.
- Assign each railway zone its own set of trains to manage (not just the management of the infrastructure, which I guess is happening as of now) along with the responsibility for getting the maximum revenues. This should be even for trains running across zones. Doing this would give more freedom to each zone to take decisions on the go to meet demand surges and reduce the dependence on a central authority to take decisions.
- The pricing of the upper class fares should be purely determined by the traffic in the route and not based on the distance of travel. This should be coupled with greater freedom to dynamically change the number of coaches running in each train based on availability and demand. The second/sleeper class fares can still be rationalised based on distance in order to make it affordable for the lowest rung of passengers.
- The pricing should continue to be competitive with air travel at 2A and 3A levels as most of the people here look more for price than time of the journey.
- The busiest routes should not just have doubling and tripling of lines. Instead, focus should be on laying tracks which are fit for faster engines. This should be a long term objective. Having dedicated corridors for superfast trains (which can run at speeds of 250 kmph or more) in busy sectors like Delhi-Bombay, Chennai-Bangalore, Bombay-Pune etc would create a marked shift by business class from flights to trains. Private players would be best suited to implement this project efficiently.
- The internet booking should be extended round the clock from the existing limits. In addition, IRCTC should hasten the opening of its API to private players so that the latter can easily integrate the booking process to their sites.
- Mobile commerce is the way to go forward. It's just a matter of time when m-commerce gets standardised in the country. It is good to see that IR is quite active in this space. Going forward, it should take the initiative and lead the country into the m-commerce stream.
