Piyush Goyal gets Railways again, safety, punctuality & food are top priorities

In his first tenure, Goyal eliminated unmanned crossings and got the Vande Bharat express running but will now have to contend with delays in his pet bullet train project.

File photo of Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal | Photo : Suraj Singh Bisht | ThePrint

New Delhi: Railways Minister Piyush Goyal is set to continue in his role in the second Modi cabinet. Goyal was handed the railways portfolio, along with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, in the cabinet allocation announced Friday.

Goyal, who had first taken charge of the railways ministry from Suresh Prabhu on 3 September 2017, has racked up a number of achievements in his first tenure.

From the elimination of unmanned railway crossings, commissioning of dedicated freight corridors (DFCs), connectivity to the north-eastern states to the installation of bio-toilets and getting the country’s first Rail and Transportation University to start its sessions, Goyal did it all in less than two years.

His list of achievements also includes the introduction of India’s first indigenously-built engine-less train, the Train 18, comprising automatic doors, Wi-Fi facility, GPS-enabled compartments, bio-vacuum toilets, superseding the amenities available in trains such as Rajdhani or Shatabdi. It was later renamed as the Vande Bharat Express.

Designed and built by the Integral Coach factory in Chennai under the government’s Make in India initiative, Train 18 is likely to run over three new routes — Bengaluru-Mangalore, Mangalore-Hyderabad and Chennai-Mangalore.

Besides, Goyal is responsible for the high-speed train project, popularly known as the bullet train, between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. He has been working on reducing expenditure, increasing train speeds and redeveloping stations.

A number of problems, however still persist, the biggest being safety. The ministry has not made requisite investments to bolster safety infrastructure, instead investing in capital-intensive projects such as bullet trains.

The bullet train project, too, continues to be plagued by land acquisition problems as the National High-Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRC) has acquired only 33 per cent of the required land in the last two years. The deadline for the project was December 2022 but the undersea tunnel, connecting the entire rail corridor, is expected to be completed only by December 2023.

Further challenges face the minister in his second term. ThePrint lists a few:

Railway catering a mess

Food is one thing that the railways has failed to improve in trains and even at stations. There has been constant criticism of the quality of food served in the trains, even in the premier Shatabdis.

Punctuality of trains

Instead of increasing the speed of the trains, the new government may want to focus on introducing technology in trains to prevent inordinate delays due to congestion on railway lines and foggy conditions. In winter, passengers are the worst hit, with not only passenger trains getting delayed by over 10-15 hours but the express and Shatabdis facing a similar fate.

Cleanliness, redevelopment of stations

The former railway ministry has talked about redeveloping railway stations and giving them the world-class tag but until now, work to construct the world-class stations has not been initiated yet. The railway ministry has always emphasized on having clean stations but apart from the main city ones, there has been poor upkeep of stations elsewhere.

Improving safety standards at the railway stations

Barring a few railway stations in the metros, there is no provision to secure the entrance to railway stations across the country. From non-functional metal detectors to absence of baggage scanners, many railway stations lack adequate security arrangements. At times, there are no police personnel to guard these entrances.