What A Plan??

Indian Railways have decided to invest Rs 2000 billion for modernisation, capacity augmentation and new projects during the 11th Five Year Plan, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad said today.He was addressing students and faculty members of International Business School, INSEAD, during his current visit to Singapore this week.Referring to the public-private partnership (PPP) model, he said, Indian Railways have opted for the PPP model in the non-core sector for setting up logistic parks, wagon investment schemes, wagon leasing schemes and also for establishing more than 7000 agricultural outlets throughout the country.Railways would encourage the introduction of PPP model for setting up new factories for the production of wagons, coaches and locomotives, he said.The minister said 26 major railway stations are to be upgraded as world class stations across the country. There will be separate departure and arrival facilities for passengers to decongest existing crowds at station complexes besides other modernized passenger amenities like world class waiting rooms, multi-level parking lots and malls.Prasad further said that after earning a surplus of Rs 250 billion during 2007-08 and with an operating ratio of 76 per cent, Indian Railways have shown an achievement which is much better than several top fortune 500 world companies."Our vision is to make Indian Railways the world's number one railway network and the days are not far away when it will be one of the best railways in the world," he said.

Mujhe mere parivar se Bachao!!

Kin of rail minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad just can't help being in news. This time it is the turn of Gulab Yadav, the elder brother of Lalu, who has come under scanner. In 2004, a "parcha" (a document relating to right to possession of a plot) of about 80 decimals of land in Lalu's native village Phulwaria in Gopalganj district, was given to Kunti Devi, wife of Gulab Yadav, by the circle officer concerned on the ground that she was landless and belonged to the other backward castes (OBC) category. Incidentally, Gulab is not the lone Lalu kin to have been declared poor and landless. Sudesh Yadav, son of Lalu's nephew Ramanand Yadav, has also been given an-other 40 decimals of land on the same ground. The question being raised by government officials in Gopalganj is whether Kunti and Sudesh, kin of the then chief minister Rabri Devi, can be given the land meant for the poor and landless. "In 2003, Gulab was the pramukh of Phulwaria village, owned a car and had a dou-ble-storey house," recalled an official. However, there is another twist to the story. The land given to them has been acquired by the government for construction of the Phulwaria railway station. "My son has already received about Rs two lakh as com-pensation for the land," said Ramanand. However, Gulab is yet to receive the compensation amount. "He (Gulab) has stopped the railway work on his land saying that he will not allow the work to progress until he gets compensation," said Kanhaiya Mishra, a petty contractor engaged in the construction of the railway station in Lalu's village. "The matter will be looked into," said Gopalganj ADM Parmanand Singh. He pointed out that under no circumstances can the "parcha" owner transfer the government land given to him or her for agriculture. "The condition is printed in the `parcha' given to them. "If the land indeed has to be transferred, the compensation will go to the government treas-ury," said Singh stressing that he would look into the issue how the land acquisition officer paid the compensation to Sudesh. "We will probe the matter and action will be initiated against the guilty," he said. The SDO of Hathwa block of Gopalganj district, Parmeshwar Ram, pointed out that as per rules the first priority in distribution of land has to be given to landless members of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. "If there is no one in this category, members of extremely backward castes (EBCs) are given priority and then finally members of OBC are considered for the `parcha' land," said Ram. Incidentally, Yadavs fall in the OBC category. The probe will see if there were landless members of SC/STs and EBCs in Phulwaria who de-served the land more than the kin of the railway minister.

Lalu signs 1b$ contract!!

After mesmerizing management students of INSEAD in Singapore with Lalunomics, Lalu's train on Friday wheeled into Malaysia. The minister formally inked a $1-billion contract with the Malaysian government at the ministry of transport in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysian transport minister Ong Tee Keat was present at the deal ceremony, said an additional general manager from Ircon's Malaysia office. Indian Railways had bagged the billion-dollar contract to construct a 103-km-long high-speed rail segment in Malaysia in January 2008. Indian Railway Construction (Ircon) International Ltd, a subsidiary of the Indian Railways, was awarded the project for building an electrified double line (two parallel tracks) in the Malaysia's Seremban-Gemas region. "The deal signed is significant in the sense it will be executed on a turnkey basis. In addition to designing and building the double line, electrification and signalling works will also be done," informed the Ircon official from Malaysia to TOI on phone. This "double tracking" project bagged by Ircon is the biggest ever project given to the firm by any foreign country. In fact, the company has already taken

Lalu to take help China.

India is engaging China in the railways sector, and Japan has reaffirmed its commitment to “contribute” to the construction of the Delhi-Mumbai western corridor of the planned national network of dedicated freight lines.

Outlining the much-hailed turnaround of the Indian Railways, traced to indigenous efforts in recent years, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad said here on Monday that the ongoing track electrification project might also benefit from the U.S.-India nuclear energy deal, work in respect of which “is on.”

Mr. Prasad made these and other comments in an address on the Singapore campus of the INSEAD business school and in remarks to this correspondent later.

While “no major project” had so far been agreed upon between India and China, Mr. Prasad said the bilateral engagement was under way. “We need to learn from China” in the railways sector, he noted.

The Indian Railways was watching with interest the recent political change at the helm in Japan, because its participation in India’s western freight corridor project was decided upon earlier. And, the Japanese authorities had now reassured Mr. Prasad of their willingness to stay the course in this sector.

Asked about the implications, if any, of the nuclear deal on the Indian Railways, Mr. Prasad said: “Electrification is going on; and work is on for the civil nuclear deal.” The Minister is involved in India’s ongoing political moves regarding the deal.

Sudhir Kumar, Officer on Special Duty in the Minister’s Office, said “there is no linkage” as such between the track electrification project and this accord with the U.S.

Mr. Prasad said he would make a formal proposal to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the Indian Railways enter into “joint ventures” with the private sector for transporting water suitably across the country through pipelines that could be laid alongside the tracks. This would help address water scarcity in many places and inter-State water disputes. The pipeline project was “feasible” and could be executed “without creating an upheaval.”

The Railways had proposed cold storage facilities and retail outlets at stations for farm produce, besides the running of refrigerated container trains, all under public-private partnership.

Mr. Prasad will on Wednesday leave for Malaysia, where he is to witness the signing of a $1.08-billion contract, recently awarded to IRCON for the construction of a 100-km state-of-the-art track network.

Book on Lalu.

A 1982 batch IAS officer, Sudhir Kumar, currently OSD to railway minister Lalu Prasad, is writing a book tracing the story of how the change in railways from a loss-making entity to one generating a surplus was ushered in without any burden on the people. Sudhir Kumar is writing this book along with a Columbia University research scholar, Shagun Mehrotra, with a view to documenting a case study on how the railways was "transformed from near bankruptcy to one creating a surplus" without increasing fares, freight charges, or recourse to privatisation, disinvestment or downsizing. In fact, the proposed title of the book is, "Bankruptcy to BillionsHow the Indian Railways transformed in four years." The book, which is likely to be released in September, seeks to explode many myths. "You have to question old beliefs and past assumptions," Sudhir Kumar said in an exclusive chat with TOI on Saturday. He said: "The theme of the book is that reforms need not be a painful process. You can do well in ‘Shining India’ by doing good to ‘Suffering India’." He said the first few chapters of the book would deal with the all round scepticism when Prasad spelt out his priorities in his first rail budget 2004-05 since railways had no money to even replace its over-aging assets. It would then go on to trace how the turnaround was slowly achieved. Today, the railways have a cash surplus of more than $6 billion, a fact that has surprised many at how fast a public enterprise can rise from the ashes. The book will highlight the management strategy that optimised the functioning of this complex institution on its apolitical variables. "The core strategy can be summarised in three words, each worth $2 billion in surplus: faster, longer and heavier trains. The book unpacks each of these as well as several other detailed strategies of the transformation," the preface of the book states. "There was this widespread notion that as a public utility, its dominant goal cannot be to make money. In fact, the opposite is true. You cannot serve society unless you are productive and profitable," Sudhir contends.

Lalu to help Bollywood!!!

Fed up with the Maharashtra government's inaction, Bollywood is now taking up the matter of piracy with the central government and has written to Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, urging him to take corrective action. As those selling pirated DVDs, VCD's and CDs of movies and music generally do their business in the premises of railway stations, the Indian Motion Picture Producers' Association (IMPPA) has urged Lalu to instruct the general managers of various railway divisions to take action against these vendors. A news agency has a copy of the IMPPA letter. "The film industry contributes so much to the state exchequer, so we hope that the government will do something about it. The pirates are eating into our legitimate revenues," said T P Aggarwal, president of IMPPA.
Bollywood producers regret that in spite of repeated assurances given by state Home Minister R R Patil, the Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities ACT (MPDAA) has not yet been implemented despite knowing that Mumbai is the hub of piracy. Bollywood generates approximately Rs 600 crore every year, but 20 percent of this is pocketed by pirates. While the film industry is crying itself hoarse over pirates filching its legitimate earnings, vendors are having a field day by openly selling copies of recent releases at public places, like railway stations and bus depots. The authorities, mainly the police department, aren't taking any action against these vendors. When contacted, A Mohite, deputy commissioner of police in the social service wing of Mumbai Police, told reporters that it was the job of the police stations to seize pirated goods from vendors. "But due to manpower shortage, the local police stations are not in a position to do their duty effectively. However, whenever they get a clue of the manufacturing units where the movies and music are being duplicated, they raid those premises and bring the culprits to book," said Mohite. Taking full advantage of the constraints of Mumbai Police, the dealers and vendors reap a good harvest in broad daylight, day in and day out. People shopping the pirated VCDs and DVDs are least bothered whether the goods they buy are being sold illegally, so long as the picture quality is good and the rates are cheap. Many have never even heard of copyright laws.