Railways

Bureaucratic Hurdles:

1. High opaqueness and snail’s rate growth.
2. Officials : cadre goals > organisational goals.
3. Multiple recruitment techniques ( 13 lakh bench strength )
   • UPSC
   • Direct recruitment
   • Rail Training Institute at Jamalpur, Bihar ( now defunct )
4. Fragmentation
   • 5 technical cadres
     • Indian Railway Service of Signaling Engineers
     • Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers
     • Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers etc.
   • 3 non-technical cadres
     • Indian Railways Traffic Service
     • IR Accounts Services
     • IR Personnel Service
5. Antiquated Practices : The IR’s rolling stock has graduated from the simple steam engine machines to complex technological products, but the 29 workshops continue to be engaged in antiquated practices.

Other Challenges faced by Indian Railways:

1. Subsidized passenger fares – increase in freight rates – increase in inflation.
2. Declining Upper class passengers – Nearly a third of passenger revenue comes from AC class passengers who constitute just 1.3 per cent of the total number of passengers travelling in a year. ( UDAN Scheme )
3. The share of roads in freight transport is more than half in India; while in China, it is only 30%.
4. Renewable Energy Push : Freight contributes nearly two-thirds of Indian Railway’s revenue and coal transport alone contributes to half of that.
5. Lack of funds: In China, annual investment in railways is about Rs. 9 to 10 lakh crore whereas it is Rs. 40,000 crore a year in India. Over 80 percent of this budget goes towards wages and salaries.
6. Unfilled vacancies at the lower level (track men, line men, technicians).
7. Railways diverting from core issues of railway safety and operation and is diverting to populist needs like wifi, catering, etc.

Measures needed to tackle bureaucratic hurdles:

1. Reduce red tape and bring in efficiency.
2. Enhancing co-ordination.
3. Use of new techniques for assessing aptitudes, capabilities and cohesion are to be developed.
4. Appropriate powers should be vested in the DRMs, GMs and the Railway Board for hassle free decision making.
5. Streamlining by amalgamation of eight existing railway services — besides the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and the Railway Medical Services (RMS) into two verticals: The Indian Railways Technical Service and the Indian Railways Logistics Service.
6. Indian Railways Management Service must be put in place
7. Bureaucratic reform — or the proposal to unify cadres.
8. Setting up an independent tariff and safety regulator — called the Rail Development Regulator
9. Corporate Accounting System — to replace the conventional accrual-based accounting system.
10. Bibek Debroy Committee on Restructuring of Indian Railways:
    • Need for the creation of separate tariff regulator so as to keep railway away from politics.
    • Railway’s recruitment should be done by single entity instead of UPSC, SSC.
    • Need to decentralize railway operation to increase efficiency.
    • Need to decrease cross subsidization by keeping a balance between freight and passenger fare.
    • Shifting towards online procurement and auctioning.

Challenges of Privatisation of railways:

• Coverage Limited to Lucrative Sectors/ routes
• Fares – unreasonable
• Affects socio-economic development
• Accountability

Recommendations by Bibek Debroy Committee:

The Bibek Debroy Committee, which was set up to suggest ways to mobilise resources for the Indian Railways and restructure the Railway Board, has favoured privatisation of rolling stock: wagons and coaches.

Key recommendations made by Debroy committee:

• Link increase in passenger fares to better passenger services
• Create a separate company for railway infrastructure
• Open access for any new operator who wishes to enter the market for operating trains
• Separate suburban services and run them as joint ventures with state governments.
• Private entry into running both freight and passenger trains in competition with Indian Railways
• Separation of rail track from rolling stock

Indian Railways needs to learn from ISRO in target driven goals, team spirit, Research and Development, transparency, speed and active collaboration with the private sector. “Process, structural and cultural reforms” are the needs of the hour to resuscitate the IR.