Unions trash Railways' dreams of FDI, privatization

The Railways' grand plans to pump in some much-needed funds into its depleted coffers through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Public-Private Partnership (PPP) have already started facing the heat from unions.

M Raghavaiah, general secretary of the Congress-backed National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR), tore into the railway's privatization policy in his speech at the 43rd World Congress of International Transport Federation being held at Sophia, Bulgaria. Raghavaiah told the gathering that his conglomeration of railway unions under the NFIR wouldn't give up till the government rolls back the privatization plan in its entirety.

The NFIR and the Communist-backed All-India Railwaymen's Fedeeration (AIRF) are the two largest unions in the railways. Both are expected to give the BJP-led government a tough time thanks to their parent parties being its bitter opponents.

"The railway ministry will have its hands full for the next few days trying to convince railwaymen that the FDI and PPP route is the only way out for a system which is spending 94 per cent of its earnings as working expenses and that the world's fourth largest railways cannot survive by ploughing back just 6 per cent of its earnings," said a senior railway official.

Railways minister V Sadananda Gowda highlighted a depressing assessment of accounts during his budget speech on July 8. The Railways, Gowda told Parliament, earned Rs 1,39, 558 crore, of which it spent Rs 1,30,321 crore as working expenses in the financial year 2013-14.

Conjuring dreams of high-speed trains connecting the major metros as part of the Diamond Quadrilateral Network, and a 350 kmph bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, Gowda had said that these needed finances of a kind that the railways had never raised before. The Diamond Quadrilateral would require Rs 9 lakh crore, while the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train would require Rs 60,000 crore at current prices. Add to that another Rs 5 lakh crore over the next 10 years to complete ongoing projects.

However, commuter Satish Mehendale was not impressed with the unions' stance. "When is the last time unions conducted a dharna or a morcha for passenger-related issues? It is always about bonus and pay hikes for its employees regardless of whether the railways is doing well or whether the commuters are travelling comfortably. I think the government should power ahead because if the railways needs money to give us a better ride, and if FDI is the only way, then so be it," he said.