ON RECORD: “Mountain Paradigm” proposed to Railways Submission on the Rail Budget, 2009-2010 by Prem Das Rai, Lok Sabha MP from Sikkim Full text of the written statement in Lok Sabha on 7.7.2009 by Mr. Rai
FROM SIKKIM REPORTER
Honorable Speaker,
Prem Das Rai
My Party, The Sikkim Democratic Front, part of the UPA, would like to extend support to the Railway Budget, 2009 and I would like to commend the Union Railway Minister Kumari Mamata Banerjee on crafting an excellent Budget in so short a time.
I would also like to thank her on behalf of my leader, Shri Pawan Chamling and the people of my constituency, Sikkim, for her commitment to completing the Sevoke-Rangpo rail link as a National Project and then completing the service to Gangtok extending the same rail link. This would be in keeping with the Government’s mandate of connecting all capitals of States with a rail link. I would like to further thank her for continued upgradation of facilities to New Jalpaiguri, the entrepot to Sikkim, the North East and North Bengal besides Bhutan, Nepal and North Bangladesh.
Several people have made contributions with the aim of enriching the Budget formulation. While acknowledging the achievements of the Honorable Railway Minister, I would like to present my suggestions for her consideration before this House.
I would like to bring to the notice of the House a host of issues revolving around the key questions that need to be asked about the North East Railway Corridor to ensure that the rail development is not being done at the cost of the environment1. While the project is desirable, it is important that the necessary steps are taken to ensure that environmental costs are minimized. This submission suggests that Multi Functional Complexes be developed as Janta Malls as well.
Introduction
1. The Railway Budget has promised a much desired emphasis on ensuring social viability along with economic viability however mention of Environmental Viability is missing from the Railway Budget. If insufficient attention is given to avoiding damage to the natural environment and its recovery from damage in the engineering activities associated with Mountain Railways such as site selection, design and construction, the degradation of the mountain environment will increase and endanger the safety of railway operations. Environmental impact appraisal should thus be carried out on the basis of the relationship between engineering construction and engineering geology. This is at the heart of the Mountain Paradigm that I have been emphasizing for the Himalayan and other hill States.
2. Having mentioned the above concerns, the importance of the North East Region Rail Development Fund initiated earlier and proposal to further link additional strategic locations in the North East through rail cannot be undermined and should be lauded.
Access, Connectivity, Tourism and National Integration
3. As the Rail density in the North East is poor, introduction of the new North East Rail Corridor will open the gateway of economic and social development for the region. It will also boost industrial growth through cheaper, faster and environmentally positive transfer of necessary goods.
4. New Jalpaiguri has been connected directly to very few stations until now and new proposals have been introduced however there remains a need for it to be connected to Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune and Bangalore to funnel tourists to North Bengal, Sikkim and North East Regions. It would not be out of place to reiterate that the Railways carries the maximum number of tourists to the North East region of our country whilst carrying back the largest number of students and job seekers from our region. It definitely plays an important role in integrating our Nation, perhaps now it is time the Himalayan and other hill States are also so integrated.
Opportunity for Railways to develop Capacity building in Mountains
5.The construction of the Sevoke-Rangpo rail line is a great opportunity for developing mountain rail building capacity, especially in view of the fact that the Railways have never had a focused vision of building in the Mountainous regions of the country especially the Himalayas. This is a new paradigm: a Mountain Paradigm and therefore needs a careful study and thinking. I request the Railway authorities to actually carve out a completely different task force to shoulder this burden under the agencies the Railways deem fit. This needs greater focus as for the first time a broad gauge network is being planned into the Himalayas. In a way this is a strategic move in view of the fact that China has been able to build a much talked about mountain railway in the highest formations of the world in record time connecting Beijing to Lhasa.
Focus on Environment Viability
6. Choice of railway line corridors and construction activities should be done keeping in mind the extent of degradation that will be caused to the mountain environment. Mountain degradation leads to landslides, and debris flows that in turn is associated with soil erosion. Newly built mountain railways are bound to lead to changes in the geomorphic features, destruction of vegetation and arbitrary placing of immense quantities of spoil. Without the production of appropriate countermeasures, these impacts are likely to advance mountain degradation to a much larger extent.
Landslides
7. Landslides (caused by land mismanagement, particularly in mountains, steepening of slopes by erosion or human modification, heavy rains, earthquakes, soil erosion and alternate freezing or thawing) represent about 80% of all geological hazards occurring in mountain lands, and can cause severe damage to railway lines during and post construction activities. Sikkim in particular being part of the Himalaya- a young Mountain range is seismically active and characterized by frequent landslides. As steep slopes are very sensitive to any geo-environmental changes, even sudden rainfalls can destabilize the soil-rock balance and cause landslides.
8. A considerable sum of the Mountain Railway Budget should be allocated for hazard control. Examples in our neighbouring country China show that the expenditure allotted in mountain hazard control (in the Guangyuan-Baoji section-1957-1984) approached the level of the original investment on railway construction and in some other cases the expenditure (on the Baoji-Tianshui section- 1949-1984) amounted to almost 4 times the construction costs.
9. Care has to thus be taken to minimize damage to the mountain environment during the cutting and filling of sub-grade engineering works. Control measures should be introduced to maintain the stability of unstable cutting slopes and Slope cuttings at tunnel portals should be avoided as far as possible. These among other measures may help minimize disasters and potential costs.
Debris Flows
10. Debris Flows and mud flows are rivers of rock, earth, and other debris saturated with water. They develop when water rapidly accumulates in the ground, during heavy rainfall or rapid snow melt, changing the earth into a flowing river of mud or “slurry.” They can flow rapidly, striking with little or no warning at avalanche speeds. They develop mainly in regions with strongly weathered and fractured rocks, sparse vegetation, unconsolidated slope regolith and heavy rainfall.
11. It is believed that intense rainfall in Sikkim not only contributes to rapid erosion and weathering of the rock mass, but also increases the groundwater level that leads to reduction in the stability of natural slopes. 3 Debris flows can involve up to 800,000 metre cube of material including rocks of more than 100 metre cube within a single hour, causing destruction of Bridge piers, overturning of trains and death to many passengers and residents4.
12. The Railway Budget should thus address the issue of Debris flows becoming a potential hazard to the passengers traveling to and residents of the Mountain regions.
13. There rests the need to highlight the issue of safeguarding the Ecological Balance and Ensuring Restoration Work in the ecologically fragile Rail Corridors of the North East, which lying in the young Himalaya belt will be much more prone to seismic activities, landslides, and other mountain hazards.
14. Hence, based on the above summary of issues I would like to bring the following questions before the Honorable Minister, Railways.
* What allocation of the Budget has been set aside for analyzing potential Soil Erosion related issues in the regions of Mountain Railway Corridors to prevent future landslides and debris flows?
* How much Budget allocation has been set aside for tackling Mountain Hazards like landslides, flash floods, and cloud bursts that may cause severe threat to passenger life and damage to rail corridor infrastructure?
* What is the budget set aside for Restoration of Environmental Damages along the route of the North East Rail Corridor?
* How much forest cover would be lost to railway line construction and what are the provisions for afforestation activities under the Budget guidelines?
* The issue of Biodiversity conservation should be taken into account. Alterations in construction activities could include cross-overs for animals to prevent loss of wildlife especially since the railway lines do cross through wildlife sanctuaries and hotspots.
Waste Management
15.The mention of inclusion of environment friendly green toilets by the Railway Minister should indeed be lauded. In the mountain regions, such measures will certainly help minimize the spread of new diseases and water pollution, which could act as severe hazards in the fragile Mountain Ecology. (More information on the type of green toilets, process of disposal management of human and other Railway produced waste, could be asked)
16. However, there remains a need to critically look at Waste Disposal Methods adopted by the Railways and introduce innovative and environment friendly management practices. For example, the Railways have until now not considered the adoption of the process of using recycled water or attempting to recycle or process solid waste. Organic waste can be used as compost, while inorganic waste in stead of being sold can be processed and responsibly re-used. Everyone knows that there is solid waste lying around railway tracks all over the country. This is far from being addressed and the density of plastics and other forms of non biodegradable waste is increasing with each passing day.
17. The vision to build world class stations cannot be achieved without managing waste disposal in an environmentally friendly way.
18. The 2009-2010 Outcome Budget excludes the subject of waste management altogether. The Railways must incorporate strategies to recycle water and solid waste and adopt environment friendly waste disposal practices. This Madam to my mind is one of the urgent issues and should find a mention in the Budget of the Hon’ble Minister for Railways.
Electric Railways
19. Sikkim is already a power surplus State and greening of the Railways can be turned into a reality by utilizing this surplus hydro-power generated from the Teesta River.
Macroscopic Forecast and Appraisal System
20. Is there an overall Macroscopic Forecast and Appraisal System developed to counter the degradation of mountain environments along the railway line? Have standards been set for appraisal of environmental degradation?
i) Factors influencing environmental degradation in Mountains:
* Engineering works associated with sub-grades, bridges and tunnels are the main factors influencing the degradation of the Mountain Environment6. Engineering practice indicates that the landslide collapses mainly affect the sub-grade and that debris flows cause damage primarily to bridges and tunnels.
ii) Protection and restoration measures
During the survey, design and construction of railways, the following measures should be taken to avoid damage to the mountain environment:
* Investigations of the distribution of landslides, debris flows etc in the immediate area and their stage of development.
* Studies of engineering control measures.
* Use of environmental protection measures during the cutting and refilling of the sub-grade and during bridge and tunnel construction.
* At the same time, the ecological balance should be protected to prevent the deterioration of the mountain environment through measures such as planting of vegetation, restoration of runoff areas, gullies and rivers, and the treatment of the large areas of spoil.
iii) Appraisal Standards: Standards for appraisal of the environmental impact of railway construction and Feasibility studies must include the following7:
* Poor geological conditions such as landslides and debris flows etc. should be avoided. If impossible, all feasible control measures, both technical and economic should be implemented to maintain or restore the ecological balance of the natural environment.
* Damage to the mountain environment should be reduced as far as possible during the cutting and filling of sub-grade engineering works and control measures should be introduced to maintain the stability of unstable cutting slopes. Slope cuttings at tunnel portals should be avoided as far as possible.
* Bridges rather than culverts should be used as far as possible in areas subject to debris flows. The line itself should not pass through the debris flow zone and ideally should pass through the safety zone far away from the alluvial fan.
* Programmes designed to avoid degradation of the mountain environment should be developed and control measures to maintain and restore the vegetation should be implemented. The above can be used to provide tentative standards for appraisal of environmental degradation.
Emphasize on time bound completion of construction activities
21. This looks at the experience of railways in other mountain regions of India. The need to survey geological instabilities of mountainous regions is most important, which if left incomplete can cause indefinite delays as the following example shows:
22. Year 2008: The Ministry of Railways orders cancellation of the project on the existing alignment between Katra and Qazigund, due to suspected geological instabilities. It instructs KRCL to stop all work on the section, including the Chenab Bridge, and terminate all contracts issued for work on the section, pending consideration of major changes in the alignment. The Railway Board constitutes a high-level committee to examine the feasibility of Leg 2 of the project and rework the alignment through the Pir Panjal Mountains, proposing to undertake a fresh survey for construction of the line on a shorter alignment8. Another example with similar problems includes the Uddhampur-Srinagar-Baramullah corridor originally supposed to be completed by March, 2012 which has now been delayed due to geo-technical and law and order problems.
Multi-functional Complex (MFC)
A Proposal
MFC will be constructed on the station premises for the benefit of commuters and railway passengers. The facilities include shopping complex, food plaza and stalls, restaurants, bookstalls, PCO-ISD fax booths, variety stores besides budget hotels and underground parking facility.
23. Here are my suggestions to clearly differentiate a Rail Mall from lets say an Airport Mall or the malls that most of urban India has seen in last few years.
24.The MFC seems to be pitched at the elite passengers. Main focus of the railways cannot be to only shift the air passengers to trains. The largest number of users of railways continues to be the middle class and the poorer sections of our society. While it is laudable to use the innovations in the retail sector by railways, it is important to use these innovations in the service of railway’s largest clientele- mainly the middle class and the poorer sections of society. Railways transport about 18 million passengers daily9, on an average.
25. These could be called Janta Mall10 and should service/target poor migrants (seasonal) /transit passengers who come to towns or cities in search of livelihoods/health care. Imagine any railway station in India in the night and the picture that comes to mind is that of hundreds of people sleeping on the floor. It is time we create affordable facilities for these people to guarantee them some Izzat/dignity, as the Minister put it.
26. The Mall should have a clear focus on the bottom of the pyramid people and provide for the following in a sustainable way: (a). Food (b). Information Kiosks: giving information on the city, public transport, short term jobs available in the city (especially labour opportunities such as painting, construction etc) – This could be like a dynamic employment exchange for short terms jobs. It could also have short training/counseling facility. (c). Clothes/ Variety stores containing products especially developed for the bottom of the pyramid. (d). Communication (e). Entertainment (f).Primary Health (g). Bunk Beds and lockers for luggage.
27. This should be a destination for the poorer sections of the city/town where the railway station is situated. Many of our cities, even metros have such markets, which have unfortunately not benefited with the improvements in the retail sector that have come about in last few years.
Thank you, Madam Speaker, for allowing me to place these points in the august house.
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