Konkan: An Infant Railway Badly In Need Of Patronage

The ambitious 760 km-long newly commissioned Konkan railway line is badly in need of patronage from the Centre and the states to clear its debts and emerge viable within the stipulated 10 years.

Full-fledged passenger and goods traffic is yet to commence on the line, stated to be the shortest between the west and north regions to the southern part.

The projected goods traffic through the route is around 21.718 million tonne and passenger traffic around 46.388 million by the year 2010, Konkan Railway Corporation officials told a visiting press party at Madgaon.

The new line an engineering marvel completed in a record seven years, is ready with all the necessary infrastructure for meeting these projections, but is awaiting favourable decisions from the Centre and the respective states on diverting the required goods and passenger traffic to this route. At present, only six pairs of passenger trains are running on the section.

 

Any delay in making decisions in this regard will be costly as our debts amount to Rs 3375 crore, Konkan Railway chief engineer Karwar Richardson Asir says.

To begin with, four major long distance trains Mumbai-Kochi Nethravathi Express, Rajkot/Gandhigram-Thiruvanathapuram Rajdhani Express, Thiruvanathapuram-Hazarat Nizamuddin Rajdhani Express and New Delhi-Mangalore Mangala Express are expected to be operated on this section from April next.

Asir said the passenger response for advance reservations for the long distance trains to be diverted along this route was tremendous. In the initial stage, the plan was to handle at least 14 pairs of trains (six passenger and eight goods trains).

However, major revenue was expected from goods traffic, he said.

Diversion of goods traffic to the Konkan route would eat into the revenue of Indian Railways and national highways.

The envisaged freight traffic comprised cement, fertiliser, foodgrains and iron ore. Apart from this, freight trains running between the western region and down south on a longer route are also expected to be diverted.

S V Salelkar, chief advisor to Konkan Railway, says the build-operate-transfer (BOT) experiment being adopted appears not to be up to expectations.

It would require a host of supportive decisions from the government to make such projects viable, he pointed out recalling the financial constraints the corporation had while implementing the project and the infancy problems it is facing.

It is very doubtful whether Konkan Railway will prove to be a trendsetter for similar BOT projects, he said.

Deputy chief engineer S K Arora and chief engineer Balakrishnan said the rupee depreciation and exchange rate fluctuations had an adverse effect on the corporations financial health, especially as its commercial borrowings stood at Rs 409 crore.

Referring to the prospects of doubling the Konkan line, Salelkar said it would cost another Rs 2000 crore at the present estimate. A provision had been made for doubling along almost 80 per cent of the line.

However, a number of new tunnels and bridges had to be constructed when the doubling was taken up, he said.

Major goods sheds set up at Chiplun, Ratnagiri and Verna will handle movement of raw material and finished goods for existing industrial units along the new railway line as well as proposed units.

Commissioning of the railway line connecting Roha and Mangalore provides the shortest route from north/west region to a number of south-west coastal destinations. With this advantage, a substantial amount of north-south traffic is expected to be diverted to Konkan Railway.

The railway will provide relief to ports of Mumbai area and Cochin by providing a rail link near Mangalore, Karwar and Mormugoa port. It will also lead to an increase in imports and exports from the hinterland area around Konkan railway routes, railway officials said.

The corporation is considering setting up a container depot at Verna. Efforts are on to move refrigerated containers carrying marine products and Alphonso mangoes, the regions prime products.

The movement envisaged is Mangalore-Mormugoa-Verna-Ratnagiri-Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust. The freight forwarder scheme will also be introduced on the Konkan railway.