kool
Cyborg Agent
Guys i need ur help. Having power point presentation on 9th dec 2011. And i've choose this topic. Just read and give me ur view or any other content can be added to make more powerful presentation. Also need suggestion to add some good animation, graphics, chart. Plzzzz help... this is my 1st PPT presentation in T.I.M.E coaching class. 
Guest Column
Break the Monopoly on Tracks
S PUSHPAVANAM
Railway fares are set to be hiked.It will be said that fares are being hiked after eight years.Fact is that without anyone noticing it,railway fares have been hiked all these eight years,cleverly and indirectly.
First,a majority of Express trains have been rechristened Superfast trains in the budgets and outside the budgets.While there are only 229 pairs of Express trains,the number of Superfast trains is 265 pairs! This means Railways can charge.8 for ordinary Second Class,.20 for Sleeper Class,.30 for 3A and 2A Classes and.50 for First Class AC extra as Superfast surcharge.The speed norm is 55 kmph.Trains running at 53 kmph were made Superfast by slightly increasing their speed.
Second,a Special Railway Safety Fund was created in 2004 with.17,000 crore,of which.12,000 crore was contributed by the Centre and.5,000 crore came from a safety surcharge levied on the fare.A surcharge was levied to provide for safe travel,which is the fundamental duty of Railways.It continued even after the target was achieved.We campaigned against the unfair charge.Silently,in 2010,it was renamed Development Charge! Will anyone pay if a petty shopkeeper demands.1 as development charge with every sale Now,we pay a development charge of.10 (within 500 km) and.20 (above 500 km) for SL-Class travel,.20 and.40 for Chair car,.30 and.60 for 3A,.40 and.80 for 2A and.50 and.100 for First-Class AC.Few travellers are aware of this as its only reference is tucked away in the railway timetable.
Third,Tatkal,projected to help last-minute travellers,actually penalises planned travellers by reducing the berths available to them as 25% berths are sold at a premium.For example,the Chennai-Dadar 12164 has 25% of the 3A berths and 30% of SL berths reserved for Tatkal passengers.And to boot,the percentage is not fixed and it can vary from train to train (RTI).During festivals,berths get booked immediately on opening because availability of berths in general category is limited.The Tatkal fare is fixed at 30% of the basic fare for all classes except for Second Class sitting,for which it is 10%.It varies from.75-100 for SL Class to.200-300 for other classes.Station-to-station charges have been provided to increase revenues.
Fourth,by sleight of hand,a return-journey reservation charge of.10 for SL and.15 for 3A and 2A are being levied since December 2007.This means that if you book a Tiruchirappalli-Chennai ticket at Tiruchirappalli,the SL fare is.166 and for Chennai-Tiruchi,the fare is.176.If you book Nagpur-Delhi from Tiruchi,it is considered as return journey (booking from any station other than the originating station) and charged extra.Booking a return-journey ticket requires the same time,energy,cost and skills as booking a forward-journey ticket.The Railways offer no extra service but charge extra.Every means is used to fleece passengers.Unlimited waitlisted tickets,say 400,are issued for a train of 762 berths and two unreserved carriages,an extra coach can accommodate only 72 passengers.Many waitlisted passengers travel in unreserved bogies in an emergency.This means they pay.166 for a class of travel that should cost only.91.It adds to Railways coffers.The Railways should remove the impression that they are a sneaky organisation out to thrive by any means.They should fix 75 kmph as the speed for Superfast trains and raise surcharge to.25 per ticket,scrap return-journey reservation charge and development charges,and limit Tatkal to 10% and waitlist to 20% of the capacity.Its true the Railways need money: they need.98,000 crore to execute projects that have already been sanctioned.They get a modest.6,000 crore in the budget and.9,000 crore from Planning Commission.There is a huge demand for new lines,extensions,doubling of tracks,gauge conversion and for electrification.Money is also needed to install safety devices like GPS-guided signalling,trainactivated warning system,anti-collision devices and foolproof signalling.But they cannot misuse their monopoly status and fleece passengers.There is considerable scope for raising passenger fares as,in many places,it is less than half the bus fare for the same distance.Season tickets,untouched for a decade,cannot remain a holy cow forever.Passengers may not mind an honest fare increase of 15% across the board if indirect fare hikes are scrapped.They should borrow from market as any company that requires capital would do.Most importantly,Railways cannot spend 58% on staff costs while the rest of the world employs onetenth of this strength.The best option would be to break the monopoly and introduce competition.Competition always gives a consumer choice,variety,better quality and better price.Privatisation would ensure efficient use of resources,more accountability and safety as one accident would ruin their reputation while any number of accidents would not make a GM lose his job.
(The author is a consumer activist)
Guest Column
Break the Monopoly on Tracks
S PUSHPAVANAM
Railway fares are set to be hiked.It will be said that fares are being hiked after eight years.Fact is that without anyone noticing it,railway fares have been hiked all these eight years,cleverly and indirectly.
First,a majority of Express trains have been rechristened Superfast trains in the budgets and outside the budgets.While there are only 229 pairs of Express trains,the number of Superfast trains is 265 pairs! This means Railways can charge.8 for ordinary Second Class,.20 for Sleeper Class,.30 for 3A and 2A Classes and.50 for First Class AC extra as Superfast surcharge.The speed norm is 55 kmph.Trains running at 53 kmph were made Superfast by slightly increasing their speed.
Second,a Special Railway Safety Fund was created in 2004 with.17,000 crore,of which.12,000 crore was contributed by the Centre and.5,000 crore came from a safety surcharge levied on the fare.A surcharge was levied to provide for safe travel,which is the fundamental duty of Railways.It continued even after the target was achieved.We campaigned against the unfair charge.Silently,in 2010,it was renamed Development Charge! Will anyone pay if a petty shopkeeper demands.1 as development charge with every sale Now,we pay a development charge of.10 (within 500 km) and.20 (above 500 km) for SL-Class travel,.20 and.40 for Chair car,.30 and.60 for 3A,.40 and.80 for 2A and.50 and.100 for First-Class AC.Few travellers are aware of this as its only reference is tucked away in the railway timetable.
Third,Tatkal,projected to help last-minute travellers,actually penalises planned travellers by reducing the berths available to them as 25% berths are sold at a premium.For example,the Chennai-Dadar 12164 has 25% of the 3A berths and 30% of SL berths reserved for Tatkal passengers.And to boot,the percentage is not fixed and it can vary from train to train (RTI).During festivals,berths get booked immediately on opening because availability of berths in general category is limited.The Tatkal fare is fixed at 30% of the basic fare for all classes except for Second Class sitting,for which it is 10%.It varies from.75-100 for SL Class to.200-300 for other classes.Station-to-station charges have been provided to increase revenues.
Fourth,by sleight of hand,a return-journey reservation charge of.10 for SL and.15 for 3A and 2A are being levied since December 2007.This means that if you book a Tiruchirappalli-Chennai ticket at Tiruchirappalli,the SL fare is.166 and for Chennai-Tiruchi,the fare is.176.If you book Nagpur-Delhi from Tiruchi,it is considered as return journey (booking from any station other than the originating station) and charged extra.Booking a return-journey ticket requires the same time,energy,cost and skills as booking a forward-journey ticket.The Railways offer no extra service but charge extra.Every means is used to fleece passengers.Unlimited waitlisted tickets,say 400,are issued for a train of 762 berths and two unreserved carriages,an extra coach can accommodate only 72 passengers.Many waitlisted passengers travel in unreserved bogies in an emergency.This means they pay.166 for a class of travel that should cost only.91.It adds to Railways coffers.The Railways should remove the impression that they are a sneaky organisation out to thrive by any means.They should fix 75 kmph as the speed for Superfast trains and raise surcharge to.25 per ticket,scrap return-journey reservation charge and development charges,and limit Tatkal to 10% and waitlist to 20% of the capacity.Its true the Railways need money: they need.98,000 crore to execute projects that have already been sanctioned.They get a modest.6,000 crore in the budget and.9,000 crore from Planning Commission.There is a huge demand for new lines,extensions,doubling of tracks,gauge conversion and for electrification.Money is also needed to install safety devices like GPS-guided signalling,trainactivated warning system,anti-collision devices and foolproof signalling.But they cannot misuse their monopoly status and fleece passengers.There is considerable scope for raising passenger fares as,in many places,it is less than half the bus fare for the same distance.Season tickets,untouched for a decade,cannot remain a holy cow forever.Passengers may not mind an honest fare increase of 15% across the board if indirect fare hikes are scrapped.They should borrow from market as any company that requires capital would do.Most importantly,Railways cannot spend 58% on staff costs while the rest of the world employs onetenth of this strength.The best option would be to break the monopoly and introduce competition.Competition always gives a consumer choice,variety,better quality and better price.Privatisation would ensure efficient use of resources,more accountability and safety as one accident would ruin their reputation while any number of accidents would not make a GM lose his job.
(The author is a consumer activist)
