Our dept's social responsibility to keep running it

The Ring Rail service is one of the cheapest modes of transport in the city, apart from being environment friendly, says divisional railway manager (Delhi) Anurag Sachan.

Excerpts from a conversation with Vishal Kant:

Traffic congestion is a prime concern. Initiatives like monorail and bus rapid transit systems are being mooted. How much can Ring Rail service help?

As far as infrastructure is concerned, the service has everything required. It has a line capacity spread over 35 km. All stations on the route are operational, and services are available in both clockwise and anti-clockwise directions. It is one of the cheapest modes of transport in the city, apart from being environment friendly.

The Ring Rail was a showpiece project during the Asiad Games in 1982. The ridership was pretty high after it was inaugurated. But now it is not the preferred choice of commuters in the city. Why is the service losing relevance?

Currently, 10 trains are providing services in morning and evening. I would admit that the service is not very popular among Delhi commuters. The occupancy is good only in two services. Some of the most elementary problems that has led to such a situation are bad approach roads to stations, and lack of feeder service to stations. The approach roads at most stations have been encroached upon. We have approached the Delhi government for removing encroachments as well as providing feeder service on several occasions in the past. However, nothing concrete has emerged to date.

If encroachments are removed, will it be possible to lay additional tracks to increase the services? What are railway authorities doing to remove them?

It is feasible to lay extra tracks at least on a certain section of the Ring Rail. But since the encroachments are very old, the state government has decided to have a cut-off date to rehabilitate the encroachers. As per plan, encroachers living there before the cut-off date would get a dwelling unit. The cost of constructing the dwelling units would be shared by the railways, state government and encroachers. The cut-off date and the amount to be shared are being worked out by the state government and the railway board.

A minimum cost is needed to keep the Ring Rail service operational. Why have the railways not discontinued the service if it has lost relevance?

This is one of the cheapest modes of transport available in the city. Most people using it belong to the lower strata of society. Even if it is not running as desired, we are running the service as a social responsibility of the department.