Derailing The Railway
By Camelia Nathaniel
The All Ceylon Railway Employees General Union alleges that the Railway Department lost almost Rs. 100 million due to the reckless decisions of the government.They claim that a recent programme to hand back the gold recovered from the war torn areas of the North to their owners has added to the situation. According to the union, this exercise had involved four trains in transporting these people free of charge.
On December 3, three trains comprising M-10 engines, each with 13 carriages and S-11 Class Diesel Multiple-Unit (DMU), had travelled to Palai and Killinochchi totally empty. These four trains had then travelled from Killinochchi and Palai on December 4 to Colombo with the passengers for the ceremony and the same trains had taken the passengers back to Killinochchi and Palai after the ceremonies.
The next day, December 5, the empty trains had returned to Colombo from Palai and Killinochchi.
The union charges that due to this blatant misuse of public property for political favour, the Railway Department had to bear the huge revenue loss, which eventually the general public will have to pay for. The Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Transport and the Railway Department coordinated this exercise.
The four trains had plied 16 times to and fro. The union points out that the cost of fuel and workers’ allowances exceeded Rs. 3,400,000. They further stated that the cost of transporting the 4000 passengers from North to South was approximately Rs. 1000 per passenger.
Accordingly, for transporting 4000 passengers for free the Railway Department was deprived of a colossal revenue loss over Rs. 4 million. The union also pointed out the long-term losses due to employing the M-10 engines, each with 13 carriages and S-11 Class Diesel Multiple-Unit (DMU) together with the 52 compartments and five engines would cost the Department an additional loss of several millions.
The union further charged that another two trains had been travelled four times from Matara to Anuradhapura and Colombo to Anuradhapura for the ‘Sanda Hiru Seya’ ceremony and they also added to the losses of the department. The union states that the monks for the ceremony had been transported from Anuradhapura to Marata and Anuradhapura to Colombo for free. The cost of the journeys on the whims and fancies of the government officials, the Railway Department had to bear, and thereafter it was indicated as losses.
According to the company rules, the union pointed out, financial or railway rules and regulations, to travel by train without tickets is illegal, and stressed that no one irrespective of their post or position has the right to instruct anyone to travel by train without a ticket. The General Secretary of the union S. P. Withanage issuing a statement said that those responsible within the government for bringing these people to Colombo should reimburse the losses incurred by the Railway Department.
Cost inflation
In the past the Railway Department was well-equipped to carry out all their construction; rail tracks, compartments, repairs etc. Although the railway engineers’ capacity and capability had diminished over time, after the tsunami they once again got the opportunity to prove that they can construct rail lines up to standard. Today about 6% of the population uses the train service. In the past the main income of the Railway Department it gained through transporting goods and passengers, but today the transporting goods and passengers is mainly carried out via road. However the world over the rail transport goods and passengers since it is cheaper than other transporting system.
After the end of the war the construction of Vavuniya-Thalaimannar and Vavuniya-Jaffna rail lines began. Initially the Railway Department constructed the Vavuniya-Omanthai, and the expenditure incurred was considered the benchmark cost, which is $ 0.4 million per km. Accordingly a proposal was submitted to the government to construct the Thalaimannar track as well as the Jaffna railway line at the same cost. However the government granted this project to India through a credit line. According to Indian estimates the cost per a km to construct the Jaffna -Vavuniya rail line was $ 2.3 million per km, which was about five times the cost of the local team. The cost to build Thalaimannar line was $2.18 million per km, a huge price escalation when compared it to the estimate of the Railway Department. One of the main allegations against the government regarding these development projects is that they did not employ local labour even though it has been carrying out so many development projects in North and East. Allegedly, once the railway line to the North construction was handed over to the Indians, they brought down all labour and materials from India, depriving the Sri Lankans of the opportunity of having direct and indirect employments.
Generally, when a main project is under way, other local peripheral employment opportunities known as a multiplier effect are created. When constructing rail lines, extra works such as manufacturing concrete sleepers are anticipated. However the local economy did not reap any benefit from this project as everything required was imported, including the labour. Economists allege that the inflation of the actual cost of the railway line construction, approximately five folds, impacted adversely on the GDP, which is made to look positive artificially.
