'Sri Lanka Railways commercially viable'

Ramani Kangaraarachchi

Sri Lanka Railway (SLR) operations could be compared to one of the 16 zones in the Indian context and could be modelled to be profitable, Sri Lanka Railways Engineer K K Hewavithana said.

Speaking on "Successful turning around of Indian railway" to coincide with Engineer D B Rampala's 100 birth anniversary at the Institute of Engineers Sri Lanka yesterday (15) he said Sri Lanka has opened up and long haul lines could soon be operated. "Tourism and freight trends would be favourable.

The country has produced some of the best engineers in the world like Engineer D.B Rampala and it could take up the challenge," he said.

Railway is two to five times energy efficient than the road transport and electrification of the railway would create greater synergies and make travel greener and healthier.

Also railways use two to three times less land mass for each passenger transported.

Therefore, the country should select appropriate strategies and create an era of caring and rewarding as in the case of Indian Railways that achieved a turnaround success in 1990s. With a political leadership void of political interference, Goals and targets set and a policy and procedure framework conducive for achievements be introduced this can be achieved.

The country can convert abilities into capabilities, knowledge and experience into tangible results to make SLR a sustainable public utility.

Hewavithana said Sri Lanka Railways is also in a similar position to that of the Indian Railways in the 1990s with salient problems such as lost market share in profitable freight business, lack of flexibility in pricing and unrealistic pricing methods, high cost of internally sourced products and services, Investment in projects that do not yield a return, operating expenses much higher than gross revenue (greater than 100 percent operating ratio, lack of market orientation; and politicization of the decision making process).

As per 2008 figures the recurrent expenditure was Rs 8.0 billion with the total revenue under Rs 2.0 billion. This has further deteriorated over 2009 and 2010.

However, Sri Lanka accomplished tsunami repairs at a fraction of the estimates given by foreign companies and the time taken was also only a few months compared to years that were required by them. Unfortunately, our hopes for a SLR turnaround were only short lived," he said.

But, if the decisions are based on scientific and business fundamentals, then country can surprise the world through a faster than expected turnaround of the SLR, he said.