BEED: Beed in Marathwada was once a potential centre of industry, this district is today looks like any neglected pocket in India's hinterland. Despite being one of the biggest cotton producers in the country beed is struggling to simply get connected, to ensure that what it produces reaches the market.

The fact is that the closest rail head is a 100 kms away and it takes more than 2 hours for anyone to get to the Parle railway station. The district has been crying for attention year after year but successive railway ministers seem to have looked the other way.

To understand its impact, UTVi met up with Subhash Sarda, one of Beeds' biggest industrialists, who owns a huge cotton processing unit. He has been around for six years and locks in a turnover of over Rs 100 crore, but he has yet not broken-even.

Subhash Sarda, insustrilaist, said, " We use 60-70 trucks daily. Rail transport would cost me around Rs 25,000 daily but because of truck transport, my cost is around Rs 75,000. This means that I could have saved 50,000 daily. That is a lot of money and thats why our units can't even reach the break-even point easily."

But Beed is not the only district that totally depends on roads. Here is a quick look at some interesting statistics

Despite the millions of people commuting in rail networks each day, the Indian railways earns about 70% of its revenue from the carriage of freight.Yet a bulk of produce be it food, commodities or goods still plies through the road network
Successive railway ministers have tried to cash in on the potential. And experts point out that proactive ministers like Lalu Prasad and his predecessor managed to revive the railways by simply addressing some of these concerns

As of now the government has planned a new Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) covering about 2762 route km on two corridors the Eastern Corridor from Ludhiana to Sone Nagar and Western Corridor from Jawahar Lal Nehru Port Mumbai to Dadri. An 11,000-kilometre freight corridor linking 's biggest cities has also recently been approved but the plans on paper haven't been effectively translated on the ground

Namdeo Kshirsagar, President, Beed Railway Agitation Committee, said, " The current position is that if we have to get goods from Mumbai by roads, the costs double. The road commute is also not sufficient for attracting heavy industries. Even if a sugar factory thinks of coming here, its costs would go up by atleast 10-12%. If heavy industries come, their ancilliaries will come along and that will generate the necessary labour potential."

Namdeo's concerns are valid. Experts have said that steps need to be taken to connect critical parts through an upgraded rail network specific recommnedations include:

Speedy conversion of over 12,000 km of meter and narrow gauges in small towns into broad gauge for faster transport

Forming a separate commission to identrify potential indutrial centers without rail connectivity adn developing rail network in a time bound manner.

Building a separate South, SE and SW freight corridors

Currently only a third of the country's cargo is tarnported through the rail route

Greater thrust on public private partnership to execute huge projects for speedy execution

Private investment in the sector is expected to tough 30% by 2010

These are small steps but they will go a long way in not jsut spreading growth across the Indian hinterland so taht industry flourishes and employment opportunities are created.What is more this could bring in crores of profits for the Indian railways and the government when it needs the most.

Impact: Budget 2009 announcements

Extension of the Eastern corridor up to Dankuni. To expedite the project execution in a time bound and cost effective manner. Prefeasibility studies for the other trunk routes viz; North-South, East-West, East-South and Southern (Chennai-Goa) corridors to be carried out and further steps for action in this regard to be taken. Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor is being developed in the area of influence of the Western Dedicated Freight corridor comprising industrial hubs, rail port connectivity, logistic parks and mega power plants which will be executed in public private partnership mode.