Railways set for major rehaul after Budget
NEW DELHI: The railways are set for a major overhaul after the Budget session as the Narendra Modi government plans to revive the cash-strapped national transporter.
Sources said the dominant view in the new government is that "business-as-usual" would not help to revamp the state-run transporter as an engine of economic growth and there is need to inject critical reforms.
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revival plan would be worked out after the Budget," said a top government official, adding that revamp of railways is critical to accelerating the country's economic growth.
An official said a major bureaucratic reshuffle is also on the cards to bring efficient and honest officials on board in finalizing the revival plan. He pointed out that officials, appointed to key positions during the end of UPA's tenure, are under close scrutiny of the new dispensation.
Several panels in the past had suggested restructuring of the railways to get the mammoth organization in tune with changing reality, but successive governments failed to muster courage to push reforms, seen as politically unpopular.
The Kakodkar committee on railway safety, whose report new railway minister Sadananda Gowda has asked to re-examine, had found that the present organizational set-up on departmental lines is very conservative and lacks dynamism needed in an like the Indian Railways. "Such a set-up also gives rise to inter-departmental rivalry losing sight of the overall organizational goals including safety," it said.
The high-level panel, whose recommendations were brushed under the carpet by the previous UPA regime, argued that the present form of railway organization is more centralized, top-heavy and hierarchical along departmental lines, much to the detriment of a functional and objective-oriented organization.
There is realization in the new government that the railways need some "out-of-box" thinking to get back on track. "The Railways is in ICU. It needs a major surgery," a top functionary told TOI.
He said the government may appoint some experts and technocrats to suggest ways and implement reforms in the national transporter, which at present is being run like any other government department.
In his first top level meeting with the railway board members, general managers (GMs) and divisional railway managers (DRMs), Gowda had said, "Our government's mantra is perform or perish."
The minister went to ask junior officials to communicate directly to him bypassing seniors. "You are at liberty to communicate directly on any issue which would bring good name to the railways and I will keep it confidential," Gowda had said.