THE UNION minister for Railways, Mamata Banerjee should be congratulated for running the Duranto train. However, in this open letter, many similar moves are suggested, so as to ensure that the passengers of the Indian railways get better service, which would lead to the overall further development of the country.
The minister should, firstly review the proposal of DFC (Dedicated Freight Corridor). These corridors are expected to run long trains of about 100 or more wagons, for which loco power has to be distributed, so that all wagons run smoothly. Therefore, devices similar to loco control have to be provided for coordination between the different wagons.
Now, the designs/vendors for such equipment are already available for diesels powered locomotive that is, one pair from DLW/EMD locos is already on trial. However, the proposed DFC is with electric locos and such designs on traction / braking control have yet to be developed.
Besides, infrastructure of electrification can lead to many possible hazards which would be harder to recover from. The double stack loaded wagon and the future modified double decker train, may face a lot of constraints and, in the event of an accident, the electrification infrastructure will take a longer time to restore to normal, losing high revenue and causing a lot of inconvenience to the passengers. This would compound our nation's power woes.
Our nation is struggling with electricity power. Quality coal makes another problem to generate power steadily. Thermal plants produce a large amount of environment pollution. Then, the power generated is divided by the National grid on the basis of which sector needs it more. So, one electric locomotive may be depriving about 100-150 peasants of the electric power needed for agriculture and pumping water. The cost of maintenance of electric locomotive is also about more than double to that of diesel locomotive as the diesel one does not face any of the hazards that the electric one faces.
Due to these circumstances, DFC should avoid electrification and electric locomotives should be avoided here for safety, high economy, environmental pollution and deprivation to agricultural production. Japan, who is offering us this technology, has not specified that it is tedious and injurious to the economy, hinders employment of Indians and recurs high expenditure on maintenance.
Moreover, Indian Railways Mechanical Directorate should be given a chance for a better exploration of the DFC project with diesel traction for the interest of the railway, the country and the younger generation's employment opportunities. Not only that, such a ridiculous contracts will fetch many long term troubles for the whole project. Ultimately, it will drain revenue from the project to Japan.
The minister should review the whole project with some former member of the Mechanical Directorate and come up with a scheme that would be beneficial for the country over a long time and not just for those with vested interests. In this context, CAG's report can also be referred, if necessary.
Meanwhile recently, the Railway minister had announced filling the vacant post of group C and D in Indian Railways and building a locomotive factory in Dankuni, West Bengal. However, instead of filling up the 17,00,00 vacant grade D and C posts which were earned by the Indian Railways during last 25 years, she should work on protecting the interests of the Railways. These empty positions were earned with the scientific method study of Man Power Planning to reduce the 40 per cent surplus employees from about 16 lakhs to about 14 lakhs. These were kept for a future project, if required, instead of surrendering forever as per the IR's policy laid down in the Mission Items of Indian Railways.
Is this not an attempt at sabotaging the Railways hard work, just to play to the respective vote banks? It is only hoped that the minister goes through these concerns carefully, before creating a final plan of action on them.
3.6 / 5 votes 
