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    PM Modi's plan to utilise underused railway stations as skill development centres may face bottlenecks

    Synopsis

    PM Modi wants railway stations with minimal activity to become growth centres for villages nearby. But there seem to be certain problems.

    ET Bureau
    Bharat Ram Meena reaches his office at Jhajjar railway station in Haryana at 4:00 every morning. Before the first train comes in at 5:52 am, he needs to do multiple tasks: from selling tickets at the counter to controlling the signalling system and alerting gatekeepers about the arrival.

    As the station superintendent, Meena’s morning duty ends at 8:00 am. He then goes back to his quarters to rest, as the next train arrives only after a little over 10 hours, at 6:15 in the evening.

    The two-year-old Jhajjar railway station located on all of 100 acres remains a silent zone throughout the day. Meena’s subordinates, four in number, too leave for their quarters during this period.

    For most of the day, only Virendra, who cleans the station, is seen on the premises. No Railway Protection Force personnel have been deployed at the station as yet.

    Image article boday
    In that long stretch between 8:00 am and 6:15 pm, Jhajjar station lies desolate, its vast infrastructure — that includes a waiting lounge, furniture, lights, water and power backup — grossly underutilised.

    Jhajjar may fit well into the prime minister’s plan of utilising underused railway stations for initiatives such as the skill development programme, one of the pet projects of the government at the Centre.

    As Narendra Modi said at the ET Global Business Summit last week, railway stations that remain unused for most of the day could be used for skill development, thereby converting them into growth hubs for nearby villages.

    A Rail Bhawan official told ET Magazine that a blueprint for using railway stations as skill development centres is being prepared and proposals may find a berth in the forthcoming Rail Budget on February 26.

    Of the 8,000-odd railway stations across India, the government will identify those where only few trains stop, and where the scanty footfalls will allow for skill development classrooms on the premises.

    Villagers from the nearby areas will be trained. This can help unskilled villagers transform into electricians, computer mechanics, plumbers, beauticians and the like, and their certificate from the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship could be used across India.

    Practical Hiccups

    It’s doubtless an out-of-the-box idea that is worth pursuing. But as this writer observed during a day-long visit to the deserted station in Jhajjar, the government will have to negotiate many a bottleneck.

    Local advocate Mahendra Singh and 10 of his senior citizen friends spend most of their time at the Jhajjar railway station. A district headquarters with a population of 48,447, Jhajjar does not have a park of its own. So Singh and many others like him visit the station premises for a morning and evening walk.

    Singh claims that a section of Jhajjar’s residents played a key role in getting the railway station sanctioned eight years ago, and their presence at the station keeps anti-social elements at bay. Singh now demands that more trains should be introduced during the day.

    “The timing of the trains here is odd. The railways must introduce trains during the day. After all, train journeys are not only comfortable but cheaper too,” he says.

    Travel by train from Jhajjar to Rewari — a distance of 32 km — costs Rs 10 whereas the bus fare is four and half times as much. Till March last year, only two trains stopped at the station. But the growing demand of the locals coupled with Railways’ own economic compulsions resulted in two more trains halting at Jhajjar.

     
    Allowing more trains to stop at Jhajjar will run contrary to the government’s plan of squeezing more out of underutilised stations like this one. Perhaps the final list of stations chosen for the skill development initiative may include those where there is no pressing need for more trains, and where infrastructure in the villages nearby is poor, making the station the best choice for such training activity.

    Still, besides such demands for more trains, there are a few more practical problems that the Indian Railways will have to negotiate before allowing skill development activities to be housed in the underused railway stations.

    Consider Jhajjar station, which has 12 rooms. But most of those such as the storeroom, panel room, relay room, battery room can’t be used for any other activity than the ones they’re earmarked for.

    Currently, the room meant for the goods supervisor is empty, but the Railways has begun constructing new facilities for goods trains to stop in future so that the station’s total revenues increase.

    The number of passengers who boarded trains at Jhajjar in December 2014 was only 5,111. And the revenue is just over Rs 2 lakh a month. It’s expected that the introduction of goods trains at the station will increase revenues manifold.


    Image article boday
    Jhajjar has electricity supply for about 20 hours a day. There are backups that are meant for signalling, not for common areas and rooms. In fact, there are two lines of backups. One is a battery room and the other is a generator room. But the batteries are used as backup only for the most crucial part of the station — signalling. And the generator is considered the last resort and started only if the equipment at the battery room fails.


    Image article boday
    So, which room would this writer recommend for skill development activities at Jhajjar? Perhaps the waiting room, which has basic furniture and an attached washroom. But only as long as Singh and other Jhajjar locals fail to convince the rail authorities to concede to their demand for day-time trains.


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