Suresh Prabhu's Mission Impossible!

Suresh Prabhu is on a mission to make the Indian Railways fast, efficient and profitable. But he faces extraordinary odds in his quest. 

- Anilesh S. Mahajan

Every week, without fail, Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu takes stock of the two dedicated freight corridors (DFCS) that are being constructed – one running from Delhi to Mumbai and the other connecting Ludhiana to Dankuni in West Bengal. He pores over the reports giving details of different segments of the two stretches. And he has also started getting drone footage of various stretches, which will be sent to him quarterly.

Work on the two corridors, which began under the UPA government in 2008, had been slow. Things began to change when Prabhu became minister in November 2014 after the new NDA government took charge. Today, 95 per cent of the land is acquired, and projects worth ₹48,000 crore allocated. The first stretch of the Eastern DFC connecting Khurja (near Aligarh) to Bhopur (near Kanpur) is expected to be commissioned in December 2017. And both the DFCS are likely be commissioned in full by end-2019.

Prabhu is clear that nothing should hold up work on these projects. After all, the DFCS are crucial to his plan to raise revenues and regain lost freight market share from roads. There are hiccups – 1,042 court cases and 3,391 arbitration cases are being fought between those who lost land for the projects and the DFCCIL. But Prabhu is undeterred – he wants to add three more DFCS connecting Delhi-Chennai (north-south), Kharagpur-Mumbai (east-west) and Kharagpur Vijayawada on the east coast. The new DFCS will optimise the existing tracks and will opt for greenfield projects selectively.

However, DFCs are not the only thing occupying the minister’s mind currently. Prabhu is also in the process of restructuring the Railway Board (