Sri Lanka should give much needed boost to development of railway network

Sri Lanka should give much needed boost for the development of railway network suggests S.L. Gupta, the Executive Director to the company and designated as Project Director for Sri Lanka Projects of Ircon International Ltd, an Indian Government owned company under its Ministry of Railways.

Gupta joined Indian Railways in 1985 to the prestigious Indian Railway Service Engineers (IRSE) cadre and served in various capacities for more than 21 years. Thereafter he joined Ircon International Ltd., on deputation in 2006 as General Manager. He was assigned the task of spearheading Ircon’s Railway Projects in Sri Lanka in 2009. He is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, a premier technical institute of India.

Under the able leadership of Gupta, Ircon achieved remarkable success in effective project management and product delivery in Sri Lanka. All the projects in Sri Lanka have been delivered within the scheduled completion periods.

With recent success of Ircon’s projects in Sri Lanka, the Daily FT spoke with Gupta to get further insights.

Following are excerpts of an interview with Gupta:

Q: When did Ircon first commence operations here in Sri Lanka?

A: Ircon commenced their operations in Sri Lanka in March 2009 when we were given the mandate to upgrade the Coastal Railway Line from Galle to Matara.

Q: How many Indians were employed on the project?

A: During the peak running of the project more than 500 Indians – manpower (mainly at the skilled and highly-skilled) category were deployed by Ircon.

This was in addition to more than 2000 manpower (direct and indirect) sourced locally

Q: Have you personally been involved since the commencement of work here in Sri Lanka?

A: Yes, it was an honour for me to be associated with such a prestigious project.

Q: What percentage of India’s commuters use train services? How does this compare with Sri Lanka’s train traffic?

A: It would suffice if I say that more than the entire population of Sri Lanka travels by train daily in India.

Q: Are the rail tracks completed by you on par with those in India?

A: Yes indeed. In fact we are proud to say that they are better than those in India.

Q: How many staff are employed in total now – both Indian and Sri Lankan?

A: All the contracts awarded to Ircon are complete and presently are under warranty period or DLP. To date around 70 Indian and 120 Sri Lankans are deployed by Ircon to take care of this.

Q: What is the total cost incurred by the Govt. of Sri Lanka on the restoration of these tracks?

A: Approximately $ 692 million.  Apart from the cost of construction, this amount also includes the cost of signalling and telecom works, providing station buildings and platforms, supply of heavy duty locomotives and supply of P-Way materials to SLR for future use.

Q: The Indian Line of Credit extended by the Govt. of India continues up to what date and for how much was it?

A: The Line of Credit extended by the Govt. of India is approximately $ 800 million. Of this $ 692 million has been allocated to the track works. The LOC has a very soft interest rate with a repayment period of 20 years with a five year moratorium.

Q: Will a similar facility be extended for future projects?

A: The Govt. of India has extended another Line of Credit worth $ 318 million during the visit of PM of India Narendra Modi to Sri Lanka in April 2015

Q: In how many countries does Ircon have a presence?

A: We are a global organisation with a presence in more than 20 countries.  

Q: Apart from railroads what are your other areas of business?

A: Though the railway is our core area of operation, Ircon also has a significant presence in highways, building and turnkey electrical contracts.

Q: What are Ircon’s future plans vis a vis Sri Lanka?

A: Ircon has drawn very ambitious plans for expansion in Sri Lanka. Post the ending of the civil war, the country has developed their infrastructure at an amazing pace; however a lot still needs to be done. Reducing the train travel time from Colombo to Jaffna and Colombo to Trincomalee to less than five hours is one such task, which is essential for the overall growth of the Northern region. Ircon wishes to continue playing a vital role in contributing to the infrastructure development of the country.

Q: If Sri Lanka is to play a leading role in the world economy, what needs to be set in place in order to achieve this?

A: Ircon strongly feels that sustainable and strong infrastructure is considered as the back bone of any economy. Rail transportation plays a very crucial role here as a fast, cheap and dependable mode of transport. It is also considered to be a fuel efficient system and an environment friendly means of transportation. So, Sri Lanka should give a much needed boost to the development of the railway network in the country.