Lalu has earned applause for metamorphosing the Indian Railways into a highly productive organisation which has now got thousands of crores as surplus money. He is even termed as management guru and called for lectures to IIMs and Harvards. But the question is. Has Lalu done that he was supposed to do?
No doubt he has done the miracle to keep down the passenger tickets in these time of spiralling prices. But has he done more that keeping down the prices? With the surplus money he has he could do a turnaround in the safety, daily management and passenger facilities too. However he seem to limit himself in keeping the passenger fares low. Despite such passenger subsidies he has been able to offset the financial burden on railways by massive increases in freight revenues and booming economy.
Railways has lot more to do before it can cath global standards. Infrastructure of Railways still sucks. The officers seem to pay little concern to to safety concerns. Average speed of trains is slow. Most of the tracks were laid long before and need overhauling. All these issues demand urgent attention by Railway Minister.
Lalu can indeed take credit for railways turnaround. He should now invest his surplus money in infrastructure and take measure for safety of the passengers. Shatabdi and Rajdhani trains prove that railways are capable of running quality services if they want. Why don't they extend this quality to another trains. Freight transport should also be timely and fast. Lalu has proposed for more automatic ticket vending machines. He should be commended for that.
Railways has become financial healthy under Lalu. He should stage another turnaround in services and infrastructure too.