Friday's large-scale violence that followed the malfunctioning of a train at Diva station and the resultant delays will be the shape of things to come, according to railway officials, unless the crumbling central railways suburban system gets upgrades urgently.
Central Railway's suburban section will spend about Rs 1800 crores by the end of March 31 to run its suburban services, as against about Rs 800 crores in revenue, railways officials said. As on December 20, the suburban section had earned Rs 582 crores. CR estimates that almost Rs 1000 crores is needed immediately to upgrade the suburban network.
"CR's suburban system is possibly Indian Railway's most precarious network at the moment. The losses are mounting, the strain on the system is immense, the breakdowns are increasing. What is decreasing is the average Mumbaikar's ability to grin and bear it any further," said a senior official.
A circular issued in mid-2014 is turning out to be a dangerous one, especially for Mumbai's creaking suburban system. It asks all zonal railways, including Central, to either trim expenditure to improve its fiscal situation or increase earnings from freight haulage.
The problem is increasing freight earnings depends on external factors like supply of coal from the Mumbai port as well as the Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers factories. "Moreover, the high number of passenger trains that need to be run means increasing freight will always be a tough call. So the only option left is to cut expenditure," said an official.
The danger with this approach however is that technical malfunctions that started off the Diva free-for-all will become even more endemic. "CR makes losses of Rs 727 crores on the suburban system because of the low monthly season pass fares. If we reduce expenditure on CR as a whole to offset suburban losses, safety of long distance and goods trains will take a hit. So something will have to be done in right earnest to ensure Mumbai gets money to complete these important projects," said an official.
In October, CR wrote to the railway board that the only way for it to come out with a robust balance sheet was to bring down the subsidy on seasons passes. Currently a passenger is billed only for 15 journeys a month in his pass.
CR even let out a public statement making its intention clear. The statement read, "Cost Intensive proposals (of infrastructure development) needs that suburban losses are offset by right pricing of suburban season pass fares."
But given the falling standards of the suburban rail system, hiking season tickets substantially may be easier said than done.
"At the moment, no government can afford to bring about a suburban fare hike because of the general public perception that the suburban system is not giving even the basic minimum comforts," said an official.
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