Rahul Mehta Gandhinagar LsCandidate
Understaing Railways ---- why price rise is must and why FDI in rwailys is just a sell out, and why even 1% FDI is not needed at all. Solution I propose is to raise ALL tickets prices by 4 times, and directly send Rs 300 per citizen per year to every citizen !! That way both railways and poor will be better off then they are. And rs 300 is NOT freebee --- it is less that rent of land which belongs to the citizens anyway
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A must see statistical summary link is at indianrailways. gov.in / railwayboard/uploads/directorate/stat_econ/pdf/Summary%20Sheet_Eng.pdf
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ppkm = per passanger-km.
Railway charges 27 paise per passenger-km !!! Yes, it is NOT Rs 27 per passenger-km. But it is only 27 paise per passenger-km. And that includes the luggage passengers carry !!! And in northern states, some half the passengers dont tale tickets. So actual price is much less !!
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And in 1951, it was 1.25 paise. ppkm = per passenger km. So 500 km Ahmedabad-Mumbai journey will be about Rs 6 to Rs 7 only. But that was Rs 6 of those days. Gold was Rs 10 per gram back then and now it is Rs 3000 per gram. So gold prices has gone up 300 times. So by that account, pries of railways should have been Rs 4.75 ppkm. = some 15 times the existing prices. And rupee volume in 1951 was Rs 60 per Indian citizen. Today, it is Rs 60000 per Indian citizen, including population increase. So by that measure, price should be Rs 10 ppkm = some 35 times the existing price . But it is ONLY 27 paise ppkm.
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IMO, the prices must be Re 1 per km at least. . What about poor? Well, with 4 times the ticker prices, the passanger ticket revenue will increase from Rs 30000 crore to Rs 120,000 crore. So about 30% of the revenue i.e. about Rs 300 per per citizen per year can be DIRECTLY sent to each citizen .Thats isnt charity. It is land rent for the land commons own and have given to railways,. And even after that, poor and railways will be better off.
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Pls study the PDF and you will get a much better picture.
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So we really dont need any FDI nonsense in railway. A raising prices to a rational level, direct cash pay outs of say 25% revenue and fixing corruption is MORE than sufficient,