An Indecisive Indian

  In the deafening din of religious fervour for the holy dip at Kumbh, amidst railway stations teeming like anthills, crowds jostling like marbles in a shaken jar, and Indian Railways (IR) indulging in self-congratulatory chest-thumping over the number of trains and passengers ferried, an uncomfortable truth lurks in the shadows: our approach to passenger safety is not just archaic but a tragedy waiting to unfold. If IR’s assurances were a suit of armour, then the recent New Delhi stampede has exposed it as nothing more than rusted chainmail, riddled with gaping chinks. It is a bitter pill to swallow, but swallow we must, for the calamity has once again laid bare failures that stem not from financial drought but from a callous indifference to the fundamental tenets of safety and convenience. The first question stares us in the face: Was the stampede at New Delhi station on February 15th avoidable? The answer is as glaring as the midday sun—yes, it was. Yet, amidst the cacophony of ...

    I had mentioned in the part II that we would talk about big ticket projects of Indian Railways (IR) in the concluding part III of this blog series. But beware, recalling Helena from the bard’s All’s Well That End Well, “...Oft expectation fails most and most oft there Where most it promises, and of it hits Where hope is coldest and despair most fits” , we may be worse off, with expectation getting belied in both hopeful and hopeless situations. So, this is the concluding part of this blog series on the performance of IR in the year 2024. The links for Part I and II are referenced at the end. Big-ticket projects We are constantly bombarded with updates on the percentage completion of high-profile projects, yet nearly all of them remain mired in inordinate delays. Be it the, Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs), J&K rail line, Vande Bharat Sleeper and other versions, High-Speed Rail (HSR), Pamban bridge, station redevelopment, track upgrades for 160 kmph operations and enh...

  The article titled ‘Vande Bharats to run on bullet train corridor, till Japanese Shinkansens arrive’, published under a New Delhi dateline on 22nd January 2025 in The Times of India (ToI), caught my eye with all the pomp and circumstance of a royal proclamation—only to quickly unravel into the literary equivalent of a magician pulling a rubber chicken out of a top hat. What began roughly as an affirmation of the publication's unflinching faith in official proclamations soon spiralled into a fever dream of fantasy—a heady determination to do one better than Indian Railways (IR), concocting unbridled optimism and wishful thinking, served with a garnish of absurdity. By the time I reached the end, my bemused disbelief had given way to hysterical laughter, the kind that escapes when one is faced with the sheer audacity of the hooey. One cannot help but wonder if the ToI is no longer just a news outlet but a willing participant in the grand IR theatre, taking every official whisper an...

A sagacious senior once shared with me a piece of advice that became an anchor in my life: while it is natural and noble to have dreams, four things must precede them—your family, your friends, your health, and your spirit. This counsel was a stark departure from the loud chorus of worthies who relentlessly urge youngsters to "chase their dreams." Instead, he urged patience, advising me to nurture the fire of my dreams, to let them simmer, not extinguish, and to wait for the opportune moment to bring them to life. When that moment arrives, he said, seize it with all your commitment and passion, guided by the timeless words of the people's President, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam: "Dream is not what you see in sleep but is the thing which doesn't let you sleep." “Go wisely and slowly. They stumble that run fast” ,  Shakespeare warns through Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet, a reminder that dreams pursued recklessly can falter before fruition. The wisdom of measured p...

  The railway ministry announced on 9th January at a plenary session titled "Green Connections: Diaspora's Contribution to Sustainable Development" of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas convention that Indian Railways (IR) had achieved a milestone and the Hydrogen fuel-run train engine developed by it has the maximum horsepower in the world. Stating that only four countries in the world make such train engines, it further added that, "Other countries produce somewhere between 500 to 600 horsepower while the engine produced by IR using indigenous technology has an output of 1,200 horsepower, the highest so far in this category. The first such train is expected to make a trial run in Haryana soon on the Jind-Sonipat route. While the engine manufacturing has been completed, system integration of the same is currently underway”. I had last written on Hydrogen trains in 8th Sep.21 issue of The Pioneer titled, “Let all green initiatives not be just gas” .  A brief summary of this...

Indian Railways in Review ☝️ Part I of this blog, which incidentally did not receive a great responses, ended with the following : Is this pattern of financial performance and high levels of investment sustainable? No government in India would be willing to raise passenger fares, as such a move would be politically disastrous. Can expenses be reduced? To some extent, but this would require a paradigm shift in IR’s operational and maintenance model—a shift that has yet to show any serious resolve. Additionally, nearly 70% of IR's expenses stem from salaries and pensions, making cost-cutting particularly challenging. So, what is the way forward to ensure IR's long-term sustainability? Should IR take inspiration from the bard’s timeless advice, as Polonius cautioned Laertes in Hamlet: "…Neither a borrower nor a lender be; for loan oft loses both itself and friend…" ? Certainly not entirely—after all, how else can IR fund the investments crucial for its growth? The real...

As 2024 draws to a close, taking stock of Indian Railways' (IR) performance feels a bit like examining the last New Year’s resolution list in December—you find a few tick marks but mostly unfulfilled promises and some creative self-promotion. Sure, there have been some infrastructure gains, but the year has also witnessed a dismal Operating Ratio, uninspiring financial results, missed deadlines on marquee projects, over-the-top fanfare for a handful of flashy schemes, discontent from General class passengers, and a bungled attempt to unify the fragmented management through a new service structure. Critiquing IR’s 2024 journey is no small feat, especially when much of the public seems convinced that the organization is on an unstoppable trajectory of greatness. This belief owes more to IR’s skilful media orchestration—loudly announcing what is on the horizon rather than celebrating actual achievements—than to any objective reality. Nonetheless, I have taken up the challenge of deliv...