Indian Railways- Economic or People’s lifeline? (A perspective on the rejigging of coach composition of Indian Trains)
Indian Railways (IR) with the tagline "LIFELINE TO THE NATION" is on an "FINANCIAL VENTILATOR"! Let it sink in, a much touted "Lifeline" since our Independence is on "Ventilator"! Lifeline to the Nation According to National Rail Plan (NRP) report, IR is the 4th largest railway network in the world by size with 123,542 Km of total tracks over a 67,415 Kms route. In the fiscal year ending March 2019, IR carried 8.4 billion passengers and transported 1.2 billion tons of freight. But then, probably we don't need all this data to understand that IR is truly "Lifeline to the Nation", a mere visit to any of the railway stations of the metropolitan cities of India will make us realize this, beyond doubt. However, to understand the issue of "financial ventilator" we have to dig a little deeper to understand the financial problem of IR. In spite of the huge demand & perennially overcrowded passenger trains, freight traffic is