The wrong track

Reneging on GE's contract would send the wrong signals

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal’s ambition of fully electrifying the Indian Railways’ network of 66,687 route km is an interesting idea. Within days of taking charge of his new portfolio, Mr Goyal said 100 per cent electrification would save the country foreign exchange spent on imported diesel and would increase reliance on “self-sufficient” domestic electricity generation. It is a different matter, however, that full electrification is a feat no major railway network has achieved. Even in the European rail network, which is predominantly electric traction because of the availability of cheap power, almost a third continues to operate on diesel. But