Railways : on the right track ? 7

Editorial Regulatory reforms in the South Asian region are moving ahead with a renewed vigor and the pace of activity is picking up in the region. The Bangladesh government has legalized Internet telephony, that is, VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) and the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission will award licenses and oversee operations of the VoIP operators. In Pakistan, privatization of the PSO (Pakistan State Oil) is to take place soon. This was earlier scheduled for October 2003 but has been delayed due to non-settlement of a few issues related to fuel supply, storage, and outstanding dues of the PSO. In India, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission has taken a major step towards introducing competition in the power sector by allowing open access in the transmission system to power generation and distributing companies with immediate effect. This move comes in the wake of the Electricity Act, 2003, and is expected to create options for distribution companies and bulk customers, and facilitate competition in the power generation industry. In telecom, one of the most significant developments has been the government decision to allow basic and cellular services to be unified within a service area through merger of telecom licenses. The unification of all telecom services including long distance and international long distance is envisaged as the next step. The current issue carries an article on the impact of reforms on competition and efficiency in the power sector in Andhra Pradesh, India. This article brings out the role played by the government, regulator, and the utilities in promoting competition and efficiency in the sector and highlights the role of the commitments of all stakeholders in achieving improvements in the sector. The other article in this issue is on the IR (Indian Railways). This article critically examines the issues, concerns, and challenges faced by the IR. These include declining investments towards creation of additional capacity, huge backlogs in renewal of track, need for rehabilitation of rolling stock, unimpressive safety records, and relatively high freight rates. While bringing out the salient models that have been adopted for restructuring of the railways system across the world, the article also discusses the major steps and innovations pursued by the IR so far to overcome the problems that it faces. SAFIR (South Asia Forum for Infrastructure Regulation) now has a total of fifteen registered members from different South Asian countries. We encourage you to become members and contribute towards the building up of the region's regulatory capacity. We invite all of you to visit our web site and make use of the web-based services offered through it. We thank our readers and stakeholders for their interest and support to SAFIR’s activities, and also request them to actively take part by contributing articles and case studies on regulatory issues pertaining to infrastructure sectors of telecom, power, oil and gas, water, transport, as well as issues of broader regulatory policy.