Goa did not figure in the Railway budget presented in the Lok Sabha by Union Railway minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday. Most states didn’t. The Railway budget is, in fact, a refreshingly welcome long-term innovation programme, and has introduced no new trains anywhere in the country nor sought to increase the passenger fare. In that sense, where former Railway ministers have bowed down to the demands of the electorate, especially of their home states, by doling out extra trains, Prabhu has taken up the modernisation of the railways in his budget.
A slew of improvements that would benefit the passenger, right from the ticketing process to the travel itself have been envisaged by the Railway minister. We are in the age when everybody wants to travel comfortably and if the railway minister is taking that long overdue step towards making a train journey more relaxed for the traveller, then the budget is definitely welcome. The minister spoke of safer travel, infrastructure modernisation, improvement in customer experience, all areas that would resonate with the people. Which passenger would then grudge the railway minister for not introducing any new trains? But there is one area that needs to be attended to and that is timing. Indian trains are notorious for being late. Train delays have to be eliminated or at least reduced so that the modernization of the railways can truly happen, for modernisation does not mean just free WiFi, and SMS tickets. It has to include meeting the departure and arrival times.
There is one other aspect of the railway budget, however, that resonates with Goa. The railway minister seeks to do away with all the unmanned level crossings in the country. While that should be an immediate task, in Goa there is a dire need for flyovers to replace the manned level crossings. There are two railway lines passing through Goa. The Konkan Railway line cuts from North to South and the South Western Railway from West to East. At a certain point in Salcete they meet with Margao a major junction for the two lines and along the way they pass through various villages posing a danger to the residents.
Goa’s villages are compact and densely populated with almost every family owning a vehicle. Every time a train runs on either of the lines, the barriers come down at the manned crossings and a long queue of vehicles on either side forms almost immediately waiting for the train to pass through, before they can proceed on their onward journey. Not only does this result in some waste of time, but given that some keep their vehicle engines running and the ACs on, there is also a waste of fuel.
This, the waiting at level crossings, is now occurring more often as the number of trains has increased over the years. When the Konkan Railway had first started, there were fewer passenger trains and even less goods trains. The number of trains has now more than doubled and the time spent waiting at level crossings has increased proportionally. This waiting can at times also sour the holiday mood of the tourists who visit the State. Take for instance coastal Salcete that is a hugely popular tourism area and has the railway line running through some of the taluka’s beachside villages. An avoidable wait at a railway crossing could dampen a tourist’s mood.
The waste of time aside, level crossings though manned, do pose a danger to life. People and scooterists have the habit of ducking under the barrier and crossing the tracks even when the train is at a visible distance. This is dangerous and can be avoided best by the construction of flyovers.
Since there is a proposal from the Konkan Railway Corporation to share the costs of constructing flyovers at different locations where the railway line intersects with the road network, the State government should not delay in starting the process to get these constructed. It is not just in Salcete that this is necessary, but on the entire length of the Konkan Railway line as well as that of the South Western Railway line, that has been in existence for a century.
Konkan Railway officials have said that proposal for the construction of the flyovers can happen only after the government releases the funds and acquires land for the approach road. Why is the government delaying in taking this proposal forward? This delay in reacting is akin to having a slow train running on a fast track, for if the barrier is down and the people are kept waiting, then it reflects on the government’s competence.
