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Railway Board thorn in Konkan Railway flesh

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji

All is still not well on the prestigious Konkan railway route, though India's longest route of 760 kilometres, finally opened on Republic Day, January 26, connecting Delhi to Kerala along the western coast.

The pain in the neck is reportedly the Railway Board, quite a few of who are reportedly scuttling all the plans of the Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd.

Most of its proposals to divert the traffic are still awaiting clearance. "But such diversion will not possible before the new government takes over," said a senior KRCL official, while wondering who the new railway minister would be.

More than the passenger traffic, the officials seem to be worried about the cargo, handling of which would give the Konkan Railway an estimated daily income of around Rs 20 million. Passenger revenue is expected to hardly amount to Rs 3.5 million per day.

A couple of passenger trains have already started running between Goa and Bombay. The plan is to run six pairs of interstate passenger trains, including four which are to be diverted from other railways.

The local trains are already running in the respective states, including a rail car, partly owned by the Goa government, running from Karwar in Karnataka to Ratnagiri in Maharashtra.

But the KRCL authorities have announced the commissioning of only the Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express trains from Bombay to Madgao from April 1. The schedules of the Kurla (Bombay)-Cochin Netravathi Express, Delhi-Trivandrum Rajdhani Express, Rajkot-Cochin Express and the Delhi-Mangalore Mangla Express are yet to be finalised.

The fate of goods trains, which the KRCL has suggested for diverting along its lines to shorten the North-South route, is similar. The northwards cargo still for and from Kerala still goes via Delhi, Nagpur, Vijaywada and Madras (all in the interior of the country) while the Bombay cargo moves via Guntakal and Bangalore.

Diverting the traffic along the Konkan line would save time and distance, said KRCL acting Chairman and Managing Directors B Rajaram. He is targeting foodgrains from Punjab, coal and steel from Bihar, fertilisers from Uttar Pradesh, oil from Bombay and cement from Wadi in Maharashtra.

But all this depends on the Railway Board's approval for diversions, disclosed a KRCL official to Rediff On The Net, who are taking advantage of the existing political situation to delay the whole procedure.

Meanwhile, Rajaram has shown his preparedness to commission a parallel line in next three years, if the route starts receiving positive response. But KRCL officials feel otherwise, since no new plans would be possible until the corporation pays off the loans in next 10 years.

Though the Konkan railway route is expected to be lucrative, a major chunk of the revenues earned would go into paying the annual interest of Rs 2 billion on the loans amounting to Rs 24 billion, besides 25 per cent working expenses.

The delay in commissioning the line has cost the corporation Rs 7 million in interest per day! On the other hand, its original estimates of Rs 18 billion has now shot up to Rs 33.5 billion in last seven years.