Over the years the railway budget has lost its importance with the phenomenal growth of the road sector, which, as the Planning Commission said in its draft document for the Ninth Plan, has made serious inroads.

In the 45 years from 1951 to 1996, the railway's market share has dropped from 89 per cent to 40 per cent in terms of freight movement and 68 per cent to 20 per cent for passenger business with no signs of a turn around in the near future.

In fact, the very strength of the railways - its increasing capability for financing its own inputs with only a marginal help from the central exchequer - has become its Achilles' heel. With a financial commissioner in the rank of secretary to the government and who de facto represents the ministry of finance on the Railway Board to aid the railway ministry's decision-making process, all investment decisions are taken by the railway ministry on its own. Furthermore, an expanded board which had co-opted three other secretaries to look after expenditure, programme implementation, and planning, ensure that investments of Rs 50 crore and above are cleared without hassle, and delays that normally arise due to scrutiny and approval of proposals by various other ministries are avoided.

Unlike the finance minister who is forced to carry out a delicate balancing act between demands for funds between various ministries and states in addition to pulls and counter pulls from various pressure groups, the minister for railways is in an extremely happy position of dispensing favours to all and sundry without much worry about where the money is going to come from. If need be, the bitter pill of raising tariffs can always be dispensed and hang the inflation.

At the lower end, favours can start with small ones such as stoppage of a superfast train and increasing reservation quotas at way side stations, rising up on the scale to awarding catering contracts and complimentary unlimited free travel, and finally to sanctioning mega projects involving crores, is all within the capabilities of the honourable minister of railways.

Undoubtedly there is no better proof for railways being the most prized milch cow than the recent spat between Samata and Mamata over who should decide its destiny.

However, unlike his worthy predecessors who unabashedly went to town indulging in financial profligacy, starting with Jaffer Sharief's `Project Unigauge' which resulted in a substantial portion of the railway's development budget being committed to a very large number of financially unviable schemes, and Paswan who overnight added six new railway zones to the existing nine in order to please MPs of certain states, Nitish Kumar has so far bravely refused to succumb to the temptation of championing populist projects.

Though a few weeks ago placating Mamata and a few allies down south being on top priority, he had to reluctantly agree to the creation of four new divisions, though tentatively at Jalpaiguri, Gaya, Bhagalpur and Salem.

However, unlike his predecessors, for the second time in succession, Nitish Kumar reportedly will not be announcing any mega projects. It was only last year that Nitish Kumar had placed on the floor of the Parliament a Status Paper which had brought out the very serious and quite conflicting demands placed on the railways and the urgent need for keeping its commercial and social roles in distinct water tight compartments with appropriate means for financing them.

In the face of what he had stated in this paper it would he would undoubtedly find it hard to be populist on the same scale as his predecessors. Moreover, in spite of rampant political interference and a string of ministers with their respective private agendas for distribution of goodies, what has kept the system chugging along over the last one decade or so are the seven wise men - seasoned professionals in their respective fields - in the Railway Board.

Headed by a chairman who is the first among equals, the six functional members in charge of their portfolios - civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering, transportation, finance, and staff - not only lay down long-term policy but also oversee short-term inputs through the 21 general managers heading the nine zones, six production units and various other establishments.

They were also responsible for persuading the railway minister last year to table a Status Paper on the floor of the house. They have so far been able to make him see reason and refrain from going overboard concerning unviable schemes, though how far they have succeeded in their efforts will be known only today.

While a marginal hike in passenger tariff including suburban fares to further reduce the cross subsidies it enjoys from freight cannot be ruled out, the freight tariff itself is expected to be by and large remain untouched if not made more attractive for transport of commodities in bulk with `volume discount' schemes which has already seen a highly favourable response from cement, steel, iron ore, sponge iron and clinker over the last few months.

The railways today is like a giant which is suffering from a major hemorrhage, leaking away precious finances into scores of unviable projects which will take years to not only be completed but before they start giving any meaningful returns. Yet it is required to keep carrying the burden of the nation's industrial and economic growth and simply cannot afford to falter, or for that matter just keel over and die!

The author is a former Railway Board member