Rail to Bengal: Share loss or lose routes

TT, 19 January 2019, Calcutta: The railways have said they will close down eight "unviable" train routes in Bengal unless the state bears half of the losses, setting up a fresh flashpoint between the Narendra Modi and Mamata Banerjee governments.

In a letter dated January 17, the Eastern Railway's chief commercial manager, S.S. Gehlot, reminded the Bengal government that his predecessor had sought the state's consent for closing the eight routes (see chart).

"In case, however, these are to be retained in public interest, State Government's agreement was requested for sharing the burden of loss of working lines at least in the 50:50 ratio with Eastern Railway," the letter added.

The Eastern Railway letter suggested that it had written thrice to the state government from 2012 to February 2015 in vain. The latest letter sent this week was addressed to the chief secretary.

If the earlier letters also had mentioned the loss-sharing demand, it would mean that the proposal preceded a similar suggestion by a committee to restructure the railways.

In June 2015, the Bibek Debroy-led committee had suggested that "suburban services should be separated and run as joint ventures with state and/or local governments with tariff determination by state and/or local government".

In the new letter, the Eastern Railway said the public accounts committee of Parliament "has strongly impressed upon the Ministry of Railways to seek consent of the state government so as to secure the closure of such loss-making lines".

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee reacted sharply to the letter. "It insults the state. This is another effort by Delhi to deprive the people of Bengal. We will oppose the move strongly," Mamata said.

Sources in Nabanna said the state government would inform Eastern Railway that running the utility was the Centre's responsibility. "Railway is a central subject. How can we share the burden of loss? By no means will we give consent to the closure of the routes used by lakhs of people," an official said.

He said the routes may be running up losses in spite of heavy passenger traffic because of the absence of freight movement. "But the railways have a social responsibility," he added.