— Photo: Shanker Chakravarty

AMID ACADEMICS: Railway Minister Lalu Prasad with David Blair (right), Professor of Economics in the U.S. National Defence University, and other officials during a meeting at Rail Bhavan in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: A 16-member United States Financial Services and Industry Study Group delegation led by David G. Blair, Professor of Economics, National Defence University, Washington called on Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Tuesday and discussed the marvellous turnaround achieved by the Railways during the last three years.

The delegation comprises mid and senior level officers from the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force and Civil and Foreign Service officers.

Country's lifeline

Mr. Prasad informed the visiting delegation that Indian Railways was the lifeline of the country and employed more than 14 lakh people. It had broad gauge, metre gauge and narrow gauge lines, besides prestigious world heritage sites such as the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and the Nilgiri Mountain Railway.

It carried 16 million passengers and two million tonnes of goods every day and had a network of 63,000 km, out of which 18,000 km was electrified.

He said the turnaround was possible because of strong determination and vision for the development of the railways, increase in occupancy of trains, more number of coaches and various other reasons. The increase in axle load resulted in increased loading capacity of goods trains.

The passenger and freight traffic rates were rationalised and a flexible tariff policy was adopted for peak and non-peak seasons. The turnaround in the railways has resulted in a surplus of Rs.20, 000 crore during the year 2006-07.

Mission

The Minister told the delegation that the mission of the Railways was to construct Dedicated Freight Corridors, modernisation of track and signals, manufacture of low weight wagons, extension of e-ticketing and online enquiry throughout the country.

He told the delegation that Public Private Partnership (PPP) would play a vital role in the new container policy, Logistics Park, warehousing, railway connectivity with ports and developing world class railway stations.

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