11-27-2006, 10:22 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Turnaround tale of Indian Rly </b>
Pioneer.com
Rajeev Ranjan Roy | New Delhi
Lalu reaps fruit of seeds sown by Nitish
In the tug of war between Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav over the credit for turnaround in the fortune of railways, the assessment of the ground realities suggests that the signs of an all round growth were first witnessed during the tenure of Kumar as the Railway Minister.
<b>The 'turnaround' in railways seems to be a five-year-old story, and not a phenomenon driven by Railway Minister Yadav just in the past two and a half years.</b>
Ministry officials said that the signs of a turnaround first surfaced in the Rail Bhawan in 2002-03 when the Ministry recorded 518.74 million tonnes originating freight loading against 492.50 million tones during the previous corresponding period. Since then, the Railways have not looked back.
<b>"The boom in the real estate and other construction activities coupled with hike in petroleum prices further boosted the growth rate. The growth rate continues to be upward, as the freight traffic carried by the road sector has been adversely affected due to the hike in petroleum products,"</b> a senior official dealing with the finance in Railway Ministry said.
These figures lend credence to the claim of former Railway Minister and now Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar that the roadmap for the 'current growth' in Indian Railways was put in place during his tenure, and Lalu Prasad is just simply reaping the harvest.
Equipped with data to bring home his point, the official said that in 2002-03, the growth rate was 5.3 per cent, and went up to 7.45 per cent in the subsequent year of 2003-04 when the railways loaded 557.39 million tonnes. "In 2004-05, the railways loaded 602-78 million tones originating freight, registering a growth of 8.14 per cent over the last corresponding period," the official said.
"Such a turnaround in the Ministry could not be possible overnight. It is, of course, the outcome of various factors and initiatives having taken place in the past years. For example, the Ministry introduced various schemes such as freight forwarder scheme, traditional empty flow direction freight discount scheme, and many other initiatives that significantly increased the volume of originating freight loading. Some of such schemes were introduced when Nitish Kumar was the Minister," the official argued.
According to the official, the originating freight loading was provisionally pegged at 667.39 million tonnes, showing the growth rate of 10.72 per cent.
"The originating freight loading target for the terminal year of 10th Five-Year Plan was only 624 million tones. The old target was justified, as the boom in the construction sector was not envisaged to be so high and manifold. The new target of 726 million tones for 2006-07 would also be surpassed," he added.
The official, pleading anonymity, said that since there was no reliable data available for the freight traffic carried by the road sector, the main competitor of the Railways, it was difficult to make 'a fair assessment' about the share of Railways in the total freight traffic. "The freight net tone kilometres target for 2006-07 was 396 billions against 333.23 billion kilometres recorded in 2001-02," he said.
<b>The major goods carried by the railways included coal, cement, iron, steel, petroleum, oil and lubricants (POL). The coal accounted for 70.01 per cent of the total freight loading. </b>
It went up to 79.26 per cent in April-June 2006-07. The cement shared 39.99 per cent of the total freight loading in 2002-03 that went up to 41.29 per cent in 2005-06 along with iron and steel that too touched 40.24 per cent during April-June of 2006-07.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Pioneer.com
Rajeev Ranjan Roy | New Delhi
Lalu reaps fruit of seeds sown by Nitish
In the tug of war between Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav over the credit for turnaround in the fortune of railways, the assessment of the ground realities suggests that the signs of an all round growth were first witnessed during the tenure of Kumar as the Railway Minister.
<b>The 'turnaround' in railways seems to be a five-year-old story, and not a phenomenon driven by Railway Minister Yadav just in the past two and a half years.</b>
Ministry officials said that the signs of a turnaround first surfaced in the Rail Bhawan in 2002-03 when the Ministry recorded 518.74 million tonnes originating freight loading against 492.50 million tones during the previous corresponding period. Since then, the Railways have not looked back.
<b>"The boom in the real estate and other construction activities coupled with hike in petroleum prices further boosted the growth rate. The growth rate continues to be upward, as the freight traffic carried by the road sector has been adversely affected due to the hike in petroleum products,"</b> a senior official dealing with the finance in Railway Ministry said.
These figures lend credence to the claim of former Railway Minister and now Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar that the roadmap for the 'current growth' in Indian Railways was put in place during his tenure, and Lalu Prasad is just simply reaping the harvest.
Equipped with data to bring home his point, the official said that in 2002-03, the growth rate was 5.3 per cent, and went up to 7.45 per cent in the subsequent year of 2003-04 when the railways loaded 557.39 million tonnes. "In 2004-05, the railways loaded 602-78 million tones originating freight, registering a growth of 8.14 per cent over the last corresponding period," the official said.
"Such a turnaround in the Ministry could not be possible overnight. It is, of course, the outcome of various factors and initiatives having taken place in the past years. For example, the Ministry introduced various schemes such as freight forwarder scheme, traditional empty flow direction freight discount scheme, and many other initiatives that significantly increased the volume of originating freight loading. Some of such schemes were introduced when Nitish Kumar was the Minister," the official argued.
According to the official, the originating freight loading was provisionally pegged at 667.39 million tonnes, showing the growth rate of 10.72 per cent.
"The originating freight loading target for the terminal year of 10th Five-Year Plan was only 624 million tones. The old target was justified, as the boom in the construction sector was not envisaged to be so high and manifold. The new target of 726 million tones for 2006-07 would also be surpassed," he added.
The official, pleading anonymity, said that since there was no reliable data available for the freight traffic carried by the road sector, the main competitor of the Railways, it was difficult to make 'a fair assessment' about the share of Railways in the total freight traffic. "The freight net tone kilometres target for 2006-07 was 396 billions against 333.23 billion kilometres recorded in 2001-02," he said.
<b>The major goods carried by the railways included coal, cement, iron, steel, petroleum, oil and lubricants (POL). The coal accounted for 70.01 per cent of the total freight loading. </b>
It went up to 79.26 per cent in April-June 2006-07. The cement shared 39.99 per cent of the total freight loading in 2002-03 that went up to 41.29 per cent in 2005-06 along with iron and steel that too touched 40.24 per cent during April-June of 2006-07.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->