Railway and the Rail budget

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Current NEWS:
The most steaming discussion which is going on and which I am listening these days is the inflation in the fare rate of the Railways. People are angry because of this sudden and steep hike in the price of passenger trains (by 14.2%)  as well as freight trains (by 6.4%). Some has accepted this hike in the positive and some in the negative manner. I, We or nobody can not quantify and qualify these peoples as who are against and who are with this hike? 

Some of them are keep on repeating one thing again and again that, Mr. Modi has promised for "Acche din" (अच्छे दिन आने वाले है), is this is the coming of "Acche din"? But others are saying that this is maiden step by this government in the process for reformation of Indian Railways. There are different views from different people.

As we all know the future is uncertain so we are not able to say what it will be like the face of railways in future, but one thing is certain that its (Railways) future will heavily depends on the type of decision lay by the current government officials.

Current Status of Indian Railways:

 India ranks fourth after United States, China and Russia in the terms of longest rail network in world, consisting of about 65,000 kms in  length. Indian railway system is one of the complex railway system in the world consisting of different types of trains which are designed and planned to serve different functions in the system. Currently the trains which are running on the Indian tracks can broadly be classifies as:
  • Duronto Express
  • Rajdhani Trains 
  • Shatabdi Express
  • Garib Rath
  • Jan Satabdi
  • Sampark Kranti Express
  • Suprefast Express/Mail
  • Passenger/Superfast Passenger
  • Suburban Trains
  • Metros and Monorails (Only in Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai)
Bhopal Shatabdi Express is the fastest train in India having a maximum speed of 150 kmph and a average speed of 91 kmph, until the successful trial of India's fastest train in this month on the route of New Delhi-Agra. During its journey its average speed was 125-130 kmph, and touched the maximum speed of 160 kmph. But to get the fastest train crown in its name, it has to pass several other test conducted by the Indian Railways in different condition. 

The current national average speed of express trains are little over 50 kmph and for the goods trains it is not more than 25 kmph. Keeping this in mind Railway department has to do a lot of work, to increase the average speeds of trains on all routes of the network. It will not solve the problem if average speed on one route is high and on the other extremely low. They have to see and think Rail network as a single body.

The Promise and Future Plans:

As Mr. Narendra Modi has promised in his campaigns and also in the manifesto for the 2014 Lok Sabha to the people of INDIA, that he will introduce High Speed Rail (HSR) in the country. It pledged to build the Diamond Quadrilateral Project- connecting four major cities of India located in the four edges of the country. He has also promised that he will introduce some semi-bullet trains whose speed will be around 150-200 kmph.

To keep the above promises the Rail budget of 2014-15 (on 08.07.2014) given by Union Minister Mr. Sadananda Gowda includes all the points, and above all he has given emphasis on the improvement of small things in the railways. The main steps which has been taken by the Union Minister are:

  • High speed rail network and Bullet train
  • Revamp of Ticket reservation system
  • Improve catering and food
  • Global standards stations
  • 58 new trains, 11 existing train extended
  • Improving safety
  • Workstations on wheel
  • Train dedicated to Tourism
The rail budget of 2014-15 seems to be focusing to improve the basic facilities of the railways, rather than going for a big projects (Except HSR and Diamond Quadrilateral). Mr. Gowda has touched the basic problem of food, security, cleaning etc. in his budget.

Some are very happy with this budget, but some are not. They are saying what kind of this budget everything in the budget is superficial, these things can not be achieved , does Mr. Gowda didn't done his homework? But there is one thing true for sure, if all these can be implemented as stated, then it will be start of reformation of Indian Railways
Location: Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

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