It is story of thrills and valor, of coping with masses and engineering skills for a significant tool of mobility that has only expanded in the 150 years or more of its existence.

For the Indian Railways development has been the watch word, and yet there have been glaring glitches that have left a scar. It had to face many challenges, some of which have remained unsolved or partially solved.

Two years after the 11 July 2006 on suburban railway network in Mumbai, by suspected extremists of minority cadres, there is no change for the commuters in terms of security as the Ministry is yet to take a decision on an integrated security plan for important railway stations across the country, including the suburban network – are a reality that nearly seven million people who commute by the local trains.

The tragedy that snuffed out at least 187 innocent lives, still has victims who need and take treatment at local hospitals, thankfully paid for by the Railways. For these unfortunate victims, Railways have already reimbursed more than Rs. 65 lakhs on hospital and treatment bills.

For the Railways it has been an uphill task, form putting five of the seven blown up coaches back on the rails to disbursing compensations that total upto Rs. 25 crores to the blast victims and their families, and also absorbing 69 people from the affected families into railway jobs, however it has falled in executing effective security system at the 28 suburban stations of Western Railways, despite installing more than 500 CCTVs, 71 metal detectors and hiring 12 dog squads in addition to the five of its own.

A proposal to engage private parties on a Build Own Operate and Transfer basis to provide equipment for security and explosive detection and disposal is still hanging fire in Rail Bhavan. Officials unofficially concede that private parties are lining up, keen to install, operate and maintain the security set-up. But as yet there has been no policy decision (till mid-July).

On the energy saving front in Railways, there has finally been some movement – Indian Railways ambitious and innovative plan to replace 26 lakh incandescent lamps with energy efficient Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) in 6.5 lakh railway households and earn carbon credits has finally moved. A consortium of three companies Philips Goldman Sachs and IRG bidding jointly for the project.

According to Railway Board officials, they hope to get the project done at no cost to the Ministry as the selected group would be allowed to recover its costs by selling the carbon credits after registering with the Clean Development Mechanism of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Railways could share a part of the revenue earned through the carbon credits. The consortium is approved by Bureau of Energy Efficiency, and could be a fit case for approval by the Ministry. On an earlier occasion, two other hopeful companies who had bid for the project have not applied again. Their first bid was scrapped due to technical reasons.

This time, Railway in the hope of bringing down electricity bills of the 6.5 lakh residential quarters located all over the country in all its zones, production units and workshops by implementing this project.

The project envisages replacing 60 watt incandescent lamps with CFLs of at least 15 watts and 100 watt incandescent lamps with CFLS of at least 18 watts between the years 2008 and 2012. The company selected would be required to supply four CFLS per Household and maintain them during the contract period. The Clean Development Mechanism is a Kyoto Protocol Mechanism that allows developing countries to earn carbon credits by using technologies that reduce green house gas emissions. These countries can then sell these credits to developed countries. CFLs are ready retrofit lamps whose design allows them to be used in place of incandescent lamps.

Another facet of Railway in India is its historically significant existence – in the shape of the 105 year old Kalka-Shimla Railway an engineering marvel regarded as an outstanding example of a hill passenger system, that has been accorded the status of a world heritage site by UNESCO, as recently as July 2008.

The 96.6 kms long narrow guage railway line has now joined the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and Nilgiri Mountain Railway under the Mountain Railways of India category in UNESCO's world heritage list.

It is a matter of Railway record and history that KSR represents an exceptional technical achievement in the development of Himalayan mountains because of its length, its attitude and the difficulty of the terrain through which it runs in difficult tropical climatic condition. Opened in 1903 KSR is recognized for applying bold and ingenious engineering solutions, including extensive tunneling and setting up multi-arch gallery bridges, to accomplish the task of setting effective rail link across a mountain ous terrain of great beauty.

Heritage specialists in Indian Railways have stressed that the authenticity of KSR has been well preserved over the decades and its infrastructure -- 18 railway stations, 988 bridges and 102 tunnels have been well maintained to keep the hill section operational more than a century later after it was first thrown open to traffic.

UNESCO's authorities have now asked India to draw up a detailed technical and architectural inventory of the stations and annex buildings located on KSR, indicating their state of conservation and the planned programme of works and stepping up control of encroachment of land in and around the area.

With a mixed bag of achievements – good and bad, one looks forward to the day and time when Indian Railway can revive its romantic, salubrious and super efficient image, with top rate technical excellence thrown for good measure.

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