Tamil Nadu   

Better prospects for Railways: Velu

— Photo: R. Shivaji Rao

GREETING each other: Union Minister of State for Railways R. Velu with Justice S. Rajaeswaran, Madras High Court Judge, at an endowment lecture in Chennai on Sunday. A.M. Swaminathan, president, SINA, is in the picture.

CHENNAI: By maximising the utilisation of its simple assets, the Railways could turn around in four years, proving wrong the prediction of the experts that it had no future, Minister of State for Railways R. Velu said on Sunday.

Delivering the K.N.Shanmugasundaram memorial endowment lecture on “Turnaround Strategy of Indian Railway,” he said the biggest task was to motivate the employees whose morale was low in the wake of the drastic measures, including downsizing manpower recommended by the Rakesh Mohan Committee.

But the Railways could do a magic and became profitable without retrenching a single employee.

According to Mr. Velu, streamlining the freight services and allowing public-private partnership did the magic.

“Private parties were allowed to own wagons. This met with a great response, and the profits made through the freight services help the Railways make up the losses in the passenger services.”

The Minister said the Railways’ share in the freight services (20 per cent) was likely to increase substantially owing to the increase in the prices of petroleum products. Since two-thirds of the railway tracks were electrified, the increase in the fuel prices would not affect the Railways.

Creation of exclusive freight corridors would further increase the speed of passenger trains.

“Freight trains were moving at a speed of 25-30 km per hour. Dedicated corridors will further increase their mobility,” he said.

Justice S. Rajeswaran of the Madras High Court, who presided over the function, said that at a time values were going down in all walks of life, emulating the late Shanmugasundaram, a great philanthropist, would provide an answer.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

“Solve fishermen issue, then support nuclear deal”
Health hazard
Notebooks given away to students
Aspiring teachers
Two killed in road accidents
Cell phone menace
Work on Oragadam Industrial Corridor Road project begins
Valvil Ori festival to be held on August 1 and 2
Man found dead in temple
Fatally knocked down
Schools told to activate Junior Red Cross
Tailor killed in accident
Collector inspects works under NREGS
Neglected area
Medical education
Nilgiri Mountain Railway passengers suffer six-hour ordeal
RBI Governor visits Saraswathi Mahal Library, Big Temple
Racing ahead
Preliminary works on road project begin
Team from Tamil Nadu gets hands-on experience of people’s plan
Golden Hour: hospitals to assist police
‘Valai kaappu’ at primary health centre
Wedding bells ring for two visually challenged persons
Loan waiver no solution to agrarian crisis, says Sainath
Family News Service solves first case
“Regularise services of noon meal workers”
Parliamentarians’ panel inspects passport office
Adequate stock of fertilizers
Slovenian Film Festival
Alert driver averts train accident
MLA’s plea to CM
What they say
Classes on ahimsa
Nilgiris ruined
Catering services hit?
Grounded – middle class’ dream to fly
Closure of well draws flak from residents
Chain snatched from woman
Cargo movement intact
Travel budgets crash land
Cascading effect
Of delays, cancellations and shifts in loyalties
Electrician electrocuted
Man killed in accident
Prompt response
Better prospects for Railways: Velu
Sabarimala temple opens tomorrow
2,967 engineering seats allotted so far
Don’t support nuclear deal till fishermen issue is resolved: DMDK
“India to generate 20,000 MW of nuclear power by 2020”
2 arrested for murder
An indiscriminate attack: probe
Explosives seized
Captivating trio
Cars prove to be a major attraction

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu