Indian Railway key numbers
1853 first passenger service
63,000 km long network
7,000 stations
1.34 milion workers
17 milion daily passengers
USD19.2 billion revenue 2008
USD 6 billion cash surplus from bankruptcy in 2003
There is no great mystery behind the strategy of this turnaround. It is common knowledge that the marginal cost in a capital-intensive business like Indian Railways is substantially less than the average cost of operations. It is for this reason that it followed a strategy of playing on volumes, driving down unit cost, reducing tariffs and increasing market share to achieve record profits. The focus is on increasing yield-per-train rather than increasing tariff-per-passenger or per tonne. To sum it up, we are faster, heavier and larger. Each word is worth US$2 billion so far.
Chief strategist - No Havard graduate dressed in a traditional white Indian kurta, the silver-haired legendary Lalu Prasad, current India's railways minister.
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