Question : Capacity Constraints

(a) whether the Railways is the lifeline of the nation and making a contribution to the country’s growth;
(b) if so, whether the Railways only enables recovery of costs and does not leave enough resources for investment in network expansion and replacement of assets and if so, the reasons therefor;
(c) whether the Railways has failed to make significant investment and if so, the reasons therefor;
(d) whether high density network of the Indian Railways is facing acute capacity constraints; and
(e) if so, the steps taken/proposed to be taken by the Railways to enhance its market share and improve quality of service?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(SHRI RAJEN GOHAIN)
(a) Yes, Madam.
(b) & (c) Due to socio-economic considerations, passenger services are under-priced resulting in low availability of resources for network expansion and replacement of assets.


(d) Yes, Madam.
(e) Initiatives taken to enhance the market share in freight and improve quality of service include removal of busy season surcharge, port congestion charge and withdrawal of dual iron ore policy. In passenger segment, measures include increased availability of train accommodation within the capacity constraints, improved quality of service through introduction of new trains/Special/Suvidha trains, augmentation of popular trains by attachment of extra coaches, introduction of Alternate Train Accommodation Scheme (known as VIKALP) on pilot basis and augmentation of ticket dispensing capacity through online ticketing, mobile ticketing, Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVM) and ticketing agents like Jan Sadharan Ticket Booking Sewaks (JTBS), Station Ticket Booking Agents (STBA), Yatri Suvidha Kendra (YTSK) etc.
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