Saturday, Jan 29, 2005
Saturday, Jan 29, 2005 |
By Our Special Correspondent
CHENNAI, JAN. 28 . "Subsidising railway passenger fare is not good for the country's economy," Raja J. Chelliah, chairman of the Madras School of Economics, said today.
Opposing cross-subsidisation of second class fares with freight rates and higher class fares, he said if subsidy was to be given, it should be met by the Government to a limited extent. If the subsidy was borne by a public sector undertaking, it should be treated as dividend paid by the enterprise to the Government, as every subsidy strained the budget.
Participating in the platinum jubilee celebrations of the Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS) here, Dr. Chellaiah, a former Planning Commission member, was also against grants. If the Government was interested in helping any sector, it should advance loan at a minimum interest.
Suggesting proper coordination between road and rail traffic, he said these primary transport networks should not compete with but complement each other. While the Railways should concentrate on long-lead traffic, the road network should carry short-lead traffic. Incentives should be given to customers who chose rail transport for long-lead traffic.
`Autonomy needed'
Vijayalakshmi Viswanathan, Financial Controller, Indian Railways, who presided, said the Railways, being an operational Ministry, required autonomy, flexibility, commercial orientation and managerial initiatives.
Stressing the need for a successful business model, she said it should define how the Railways was positioned in the market it intended to serve, ensure transparency of performance at all levels of management, delineate the accountability framework that allowed individuals to be aligned with organisational objectives and enunciate a mechanism to reconcile the dual governmental objectives of social responsibility and commercial purpose. Mrs.Vijayalakshmi favoured commercial exploitation of railway land. The Railways came in for criticism for virtually sitting on a "gold mine" of extensive unutilised land. It had to learn Japan and Italy, where stations were being used as shopping and service centres. She suggested that the MRTS (Mass Rapid Transit System) stations between Chennai Beach and Tiruvanmiyur could be commercially exploited to improve earnings.
S. Parthasarathy, Financial Adviser and Chief Accounts Officer, Southern Railway, said the meeting of FA and CAOs of the southern region would focus on the management of change in the Railways.
