{"id":194953,"date":"2022-07-09T18:15:36","date_gmt":"2022-07-09T12:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=194953"},"modified":"2022-07-09T18:17:23","modified_gmt":"2022-07-09T12:47:23","slug":"revving-up-in-low-gear-the-paradoxes-in-indias-transport-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/revving-up-in-low-gear-the-paradoxes-in-indias-transport-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"Revving up in low gear: The paradoxes in India’s transport sector"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on an article \u201cReviving up in low gear: The paradoxes in India\u2019s transport sector<\/strong>\u201d published in the Business Standard<\/strong> on 8th<\/sup> July 2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus<\/strong>: GS 3 Infrastructure; Transportation Sector<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>: Transportation Sector; Logistics<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: The transport sector is growing leaps and bounds in terms of infrastructure, with huge investments. However, the sector is not producing enough sustainable revenue.<\/p>\n

Various measures are taken by the government to improve the transportation sector<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Indian Railways (IR)<\/strong><\/p>\n

IR is investing close to 1% of GDP annually. It is a better investment than ever before. Introduction of \u201csemi-high speed\u201d passenger trains<\/strong>, Vista dome coaches<\/strong> on scenic routes, and other major programs are being taken up for upgrading railway stations.<\/p>\n

Airways<\/strong><\/h5>\n

In the recent past, it has been noticed that no Indian airline<\/strong> is making money. This will create further pressure on fares and therefore more losses<\/p>\n

There have been a lot of \u201cincidents<\/strong>\u201d in the aircrafts which has raised concerns about safety.<\/p>\n

Further, the staff of Indian airlines is facing pay cuts<\/strong>. In addition, the airline sector is also facing the wrath of high oil prices<\/strong> and high taxes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Railway Sector<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The dedicated freight corridors<\/strong> have made slow progress<\/strong>. There has been a massive overshot in the initial cost estimates.<\/p>\n

Annual railway investment is now as much as revenue. Almost none of the investment is from operational surpluses<\/strong>. The bulk will come as budgetary<\/strong> support<\/strong>. Therefore, it could translate into mounting debt.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Roadways<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The government is aggressively promoting expressways,<\/strong> inter-modal traffic nodes, <\/strong>and port linkages<\/strong> to address India\u2019s perennial infrastructure deficit.<\/p>\n

As per data, truck traffic is reported to have speeded<\/strong> up on the new highway<\/strong>s. The introduction of GST has speeded up the process.<\/p>\n

Its annual investment is about half what it is for the railways (or 0.5% of GDP).<\/p>\n

There is an imbalance between revenue<\/strong> and investment<\/strong>, the latter being about nine times earning<\/strong>s.<\/p>\n

The distance moved in a day by the average truck remains well below what it is elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The investment is being done out of the Budget,<\/strong> and that too without taking into consideration the primary metric of return on investment<\/strong>s.<\/p>\n

What are the issues in India\u2019s transport sector<\/strong>?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

It has been witnessing stagnant traffic trends vis-a-vis passenger traffic & freight traffic and poor or negative returns.<\/p>\n

Further, the sector demands unprecedented levels of investment in the coming future. But there is an imbalance between revenue generation<\/strong> and expenditure.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What should be done?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The government has been investing<\/strong> in all forms of transport<\/strong>. The results of that investment would be visible in the next two-three years<\/strong> in the form of transformational change<\/strong> in the air, on highways and expressways, and on the railways.<\/p>\n

Substantial private funding <\/strong>is required for the transport\u00a0infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Further, the traffic growth<\/strong> should justify the investment. Otherwise, the government\u2019s asset monetization program will not deliver the expected outcomes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on an article \u201cReviving up in low gear: The paradoxes in India\u2019s transport sector\u201d published in the Business Standard on 8th July 2022. Syllabus: GS 3 Infrastructure; Transportation Sector Relevance: Transportation Sector; Logistics News: The transport sector is growing leaps and bounds in terms of infrastructure, with huge investments. However,… Continue reading Revving up in low gear: The paradoxes in India’s transport sector<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10308,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[10503,216],"class_list":["post-194953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-business-standard","tag-gs-paper-3","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10308"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194953\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}