Every time I travel in and out of the newly modernised Delhi and Mumbai airports, I am filled with both pride and pain. Pride because our airports, at least those in metros, are getting better. However, the pain is more because I inevitably compare the rapidly improving ambience and amenities at the airports with the appalling state of most of our rail and bus stations.

The comparison provides yet another proof of the widening gulf between the “two Indias”, one India for the elite and the other for the aam aadmi. The number of Indians who depend on rail and bus transport is far greater than that of air travellers. Yet, top-level governmental attention, policy support and investment flows for the rail-road transportation have been woefully inadequate. To know how woeful, try boarding a local train at any of the railway stations in Mumbai or negotiating your way through the chaos at Delhi’s Inter-State Bus Terminus.

The neglect of mass public transport, especially rail transport, is not accidental. One of the toughest jobs in the government of India is that of a railway minister. Given the scale of its operations, size of its assets and number of its employees, the ministry is a mini-government in itself. But it is unable to fulfill its mandate due to paucity of internal resources, organisational inefficiency and lack of a reformist mindset. The railway establishment does not lack talent, but, thanks to its bureaucratic ways, it is too change-resistant to be guided by considerations of customer satisfaction. Take, for instance, cleanliness in the Indian Railways. Nothing has contributed to the organisation’s poor image more than its low sanitary standards. It does not require rocket science to keep railway platforms and toilets clean. Yet, very little has changed over the years. Similarly, most of the beautifully designed railway stations in India were built during the British era. What has been constructed after independence is, barring exceptions, mediocre.

... contd.