Jun 15 2015 : The Times of India (Delhi) Train To 21st Century   Government must use Debroy report to bite the bullet and reform Indian Railways Ever since the first passenger train left Bori Bunder for Thane on 16 April 1853, Indian Railways has been the underlying glue that literally held the nation together.The problem is that this glue has worn away and is no longer relevant to a new century. That first train journey in 1853, with steam locomotives, took an hour and 15 minutes. Bori Bunder station is not used today but a non-stop train journey from Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus to Thane still takes 57 minutes. Indian rail needs urgent reform to make it much faster, more efficient, better managed and significantly leaner. The recently submitted Bibek Debroy committee report suggests precisely this. It lays down a five-year roadmap to evolve a statutory rail regulator, scrap the rail budget as a separate entity and make room for more players in an “open access“ regime which would turn the Railways into just another train service provider. Its major suggestions of creating an independent, quasi-judicial Railway Regulatory Authority of India, of freeing the train network from political interference, of unbundling railway services and restructuring the jumbo-sized railways into more manageable smaller units must be pushed through forthwith. In indicating how railways can actually do this, the eight-member committee has toned down its earlier aggressive approach outlined in its March 2015 interim report by calling for gradual changes. This is pragmatic given that there have been nearly a dozen committee reports since 2000 alone that have recommended similar measures. At one level, the plethora of committees shows the urgency of the railway problem. Yet, hardly any reform measures have ever been implemented, demonstrating how reluctant all governments have been in taking on the biggest of public sector behemoths. Yet reform we must ­ as the rail network affects every Indian and the growth of the economy directly. Consider this: Independent India inherited 53,596 km of train routes. This has grown by just over 22% to 65,806 km in 2013-14. In contrast, originating passenger traffic grew almost eight times from 1.28 million in 1950-51 to 8.3 million in 2013-14.We have constantly increased the number of daily trains but not capacity and management. Railways must open up to competition, reform and professional management. Given that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to emulate the Chinese miracle and in Suresh Prabhu we have a dynamic railway minister as well, this is India's chance.