of central and western railway should be merged and run as one independent body. This will go a long way in solving many problems – such as facilitating decision making at the local level and also plowing the money earned back into the city. Toda
y the money generated goes to the national kitty and there is nothing in it for Mumbai,’said Subhash Gupta, rail activist and former member of the National Railway Users Consultative Committee.
‘Mamata Banerjee converted the Kolkata metro into an independent zone, so why not Mumbai. Mumbai passengers are suffering for years together but the political class has ignored us completely, just because passengers are not vote banks. This is injustice. It is a long- standing demand, which has repeatedly fallen on deaf years,’Gupta added.
Former MP and Minister of State ( MoS) for railways Ram Naik, too, has pointedly blamed the lack of political will for the deteriorating services of Mumbais lifeline. ‘There is total lack of political will. Consecutive railway ministers have ignored Mumbais problems. We created the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation when I was MoS for railways but after that nothing has improved. Last weeks incident clearly shows that the government isnalt39t serious about Mumbai. Since the political bosses arenalt39t interested, the administrative bosses too are lethargic and this is the real reason for the poor state of affairs,’Naik said.
However, Naik pointed out that separating Mumbais suburban rail network and giving it an autonomous status on the lines of Kolkata was a difficult proposition. ‘Ground realities are different in Mumbai and Kolkata and any thing of that sort will require tremendous political will, which is visibly lacking. We had attempted something similar with the MRVC, but it needs to be upgraded now to meet current needs. None of Mumbais six MPs spoke on the rail budget this year: it shows their interest in the citys lifeline,’Naik said.
Naik added that it took two days for Roy to respond to his calls after last weeks fire and fatalities. ‘Even after I requested him to come to Mumbai to take stock of the situation, he didnalt39t bother to come,’Naik said.
Railway officials said the separate body would solve suburban railwaysalt39age- old problems, since the main obstacle in improvement of services has been slow decisions and their tardy execution.
‘Instead of floating a new body altogether, the MRVC needs to be upgraded and re- structured. Its has no powers at the moment. The post of Managing Director ( MD) of the MRVC should be on par with the General Managers ( GM) of the central and western railways. Thats the least they can do. The MRVC should have more say in running the system,’Naik added.
Though the MRVC is a separate entity, but it does not have any powers.
It plays the role of a co- ordinator for World Bank project funding and not any aspect related to running of trains.
Officials also backed the idea that existing bodies can be given more power, for better efficiency. ‘It could be the existing MRVC or a new Special Purpose Vehicle ( SPV), which could run the Mumbai suburban railways,’an official said.
Officials point out that a policy document formulated by Bannerjee proposing segregation of suburban railways, including those in Mumbai and Chennai, was part of the white paper on Indian Railways that was tabled in Parliament. However, with Mamata out of Rail Bhavan, like most of the proposals dealing with Mumbai, the segregation too seems to be on the back burner.
