Indian Railways (IR) introduced the new generation Rajdhani Express trains-the Duronto Express-between Sealdah and New Delhi since September 18 and between Chennai Central and Hazrat Nizamuddin since September 22. A third between Mumbai Central and New Delhi is expected to be introduced soon, taking the total to three, as promised in her Railway Budget by Mamata Banerjee.
So far, so good. The promise has been kept and passengers travelling by the two trains have expressed satisfaction over the quality of service, although the first Duronto had arrived from Sealdah to New Delhi 50 minutes late, owing to a glitch near Dankuni Station, less than 25 kilomtres from Sealdah, and in any case it was a non-scheduled train.
However, how justified is the claim that these Rajdhanis belong to a new class of passenger service introduced by the new Railway Minister ? The fact that the coaches are of the LHB type, longer than the normal 72-feet Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Perambut, Chennai coaches and therefore providing half a dozen more berths per coach is the only new feature of the Durontos. They are neither faster than the original Rajdhanis nor are really non-stop, as pandered by spin doctors in Rail Bhavan.
Consider these facts, verifiable from railway records. The first Rajdhani to be introduced over IR was on March 19, 1969 when the 101 Up Howrah-New Delhi Radhani Express was flagged off at 5 p.m from platform No. 9 of the Howrah Station. It had arrived on right time at New Delhi on 9.50 a.m the next day, after 16 hours and 50 minutes. The return train 102 Down New Delhi-Howrah Rajdhani had left at 6.15 pm arriving Howrah the next day at 1050 hrs, sixteen hours and fifty minutes later.
The 101 Up/102 Down had no commercial halt at all, meaning that only Howrah-New Delhi- Howrah tickets used to be issued for this train. It did have “technical halts” at Gomoh Junction (not Dhanbad), Mughalsarai and Kanpur for change of crew, drivers and guards, etc. No passengers could board this train at these halts which used to be run with nine coaches twice a week-five chair cars, one first class one pantry car, one brake can and one generator car. The entire train of course was air-conditioned and with all-reserved seats and berths.
A WDM-4 (broad gauge, diesel and mixed) locomotive imported from General Motors, USA used to haul this train at a maximum permissible speed (mps) of 120 kilometres per hour (kmph). The speed was raised to 130 kmph later but the timings, if one recalls correctly, were not changed. Even otherwise, Indian Railways had curiously, stuck to the mps of passenger-carrying trains to 60 miles (slightly more than 97 kilometres) an hour set by the British since 1853, which was considered a great step forward when the mps was raised to 100 kmph in 1967
The Mumbai Rajdhani was introduced in 1972 and its was considered the final step because the concept then was that the Rajdhani should be an overnight train between State capitals and the national capital and no other metropolis had qualified for this criterion for a long time.
The frequency of the Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani was extended gradually till this train had fallen into bad days by the late 1970s. There were two factors contributing to this deterioration. First, the tracks on the route had degenerated because of lack of upgradation with times owing to paucity of funds , and even though the load was raised, there was no corresponding electric locomotive at that stage for this prestigious train.
It would astonish many if they were told that while the entire Rajdhani routed was electrified by 1976,the Rajdhani used to be hauled by double headed (that is two locomotives) WDM-2 diesel locos for several years.
It was after ABA Ghani Khan Chaudhari became the Railway Minister in 1982 that the Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW), Chittaranjan, had developed the WAP-1 ( broad gauge, alternating current and passenger-train hauling variant one) which had started hauling this prestigious train. A later variant WAP-3 was developed for the Shatabdi Express trains during the time of Shri Madhavrao Scindia.
Nevertheless, the Durontos are a good beginning for modernising passenger train services. However, if one considers the chaos in railway passengers services waiting in the wings within the very next few years, IR has to take up, willy-nilly, the high-speed passenger train projects without any further loss of time. We cannot subject, any longer, to passengers starting from say Dibrugarh in Assam for say Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala to observe four sunrises and three sunsets during their journey by rail. The next railway Minister may introduce another one hundred new trains after taking over charge but he will only add more powder keg to the chaos bomb in railway passenger services.
Please go ahead, resolutely, towards launching the 250 to 300 kmph passenger carrying trains on major trunk routes without any further loss of time. If there is a resolute will, finances can come. IR engineers are capable of achieving this feat. There is certainly a mention of this programme in the Explanatory Memorandum to the Railway Budget this year, one admits. Let Mamata launch the project in right earnest. She will then render a better service to the country than merely winning the State Assembly elections in West Bengal in, 2011.
