Mumbai railways set to split from national body

The Indian Railways has taken the first step to segregate Mumbai railways from the national body. It has asked expert consultants to look into the future ownership pattern and the Maharashtra government and the Indian Railways sharing the responsibility of Mumbai’s suburban railway network. The project for the first time also aims at clearing the differences over defining a suburban railway network. The MMRDA and Indian Railways concepts will be studied and summarised to suggest necessary changes.

The project, undertaken by the city’s rail think tank, the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation, with financial help from the World Bank, also calls for identification of a possible institutional arrangement and organisational structure of the railway, its legal status, operational responsibility and ownership and maintenance of assets. The experts will also have to look at a 20-year strategic planning for system expansion, capital investment and a capacity-building programme.

The project will also look at service planning and fares besides operating subsidies — anticipating who will have a key role to play in business planning and the institutional development of the suburban railway system.

Former railway minister Mamata Banerjee in her Vision 2020 plan had mooted a proposal to segregate Mumbai suburban railways from the national body. At a recent seminar in Mumbai, her successor Dinesh Trivedi also said that the local government knows best the needs of its public and that the national railways has no business in running local lines.

Commuter activists welcomed the decision. “Once separated from the national body, Mumbai railways can take its own customised real-time decisions that will go down well with its seven million commuters. The money earned here can be used exclusively for it,’’ said Subhash Gupta, member of the National Railway Users Consultative Committee.