Suburban railway system is highly neglected: Madhu Kotian, Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh

You have been closely involved in the campaign to improve local train services. What exactly ailing the system?
The drawbacks are many. But, the main ones are inadequate funding, lack of priority and delay in completion of projects. Considering the fact that over seven million people use the suburban system one would have thought the railways would spend enough money so that problems like overcrowding are avoided. But Mumbai has not been given any priority despite the fact that it is the commercial capital of the country. Also, execution of projects take years. By the time a project is completed, its benefits are neutralised by increase in the number of passengers.

Why no priority is being given to Mumbai by the rail ministry?
The main reason for this is that most of the MPs have failed to take adequate interest in the problems of commuters. All the political parties are responsible for the present state of affairs. They have completely neglected the millions of commuters. Our MPs only come to railway stations to address commuters during elections. They all travel by high-end cars and have no connect with commuters and their problems. Only Ram Naik, who was himself associated with the Goregaon commuters' problems, evinced some interest. But as an opposition MP he has only criticised the Congress government. My approach is to appreciate whatever little work is done by any MP irrespective of his party affiliation.

But Ram Naik was a minister for railways. How do you rate his performance in the rail ministry?
Ram Naik's only contribution is the creation of the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC). In any case, he was only minister of state for railways and did not have sufficient powers. Nevertheless, he could have done a lot for the passengers. Every year he holds a press conference on railway budget and that is all. He only talked of the Virar-Dahanu rail extension.

You have interacted with several general managers of railways. Whom would you rate as the best?
Unmistakably it is Subodh Jain of Central Railway, who left for New Delhi last year. He had tremendous knowledge of the problems of local train travellers. He interacted regularly with passenger associations. He was by far the best GM I have seen.

The railway ministry claims that it spends much more than the Rs1,600cr it earns from Mumbai. Please comment.
We actually need Rs10,000 crore annually to make train journey better so that people can travel as human beings. One should not look only at the railway revenue, but the total contribution of Mumbai metropolitan region to the nation's exchequer. Not even a fraction of that is being ploughed back. The fact is that not enough money is being pumped into the local rail network to make travel safe. The ministry has okayed elevated corridor for the Western Railway. Why not for the Central Railway? At this rate, the number of people who die annually will increase from 3,000 to 7,000. Are the authorities waiting for more people to die before they act?

What is the way out?
The way out is to make our MPs lobby hard with the railway ministry on behalf of millions of Mumbaikars. Also, corruption in railways needs to be curbed in a big way. Next to banking sector, the railways are notorious for corruption. Many railway officials do business with the department through dummy companies. This has got to change.