Railway Reforms - Intra Organisational Synergy

What is the issue?

• Safety in the Indian Railways have always been a challenge.
• Compartmental functioning of various departments of the railways has been identified as the major reason.

What does the Khatauli derailement say?

• Track repairing staff didn’t get a permitted block by the traffic department.
• So they took the risk of carrying out their work without stopping movement of trains.
• This led to the derailment of Uttkal express at Khatauli in UP – killing 23 people and injuring many
• This has highlighted the lack of co-ordination among departments within the organisation.

What is current status of the railways?  

• Indian has over 90,000 km of railway tracks and hundreds of trains hurtle across, carrying millions of passengers.
• The traffic load on the Indian Railways is ever increasing with some routes nearly reaching saturation level.
• This leaving little cushion for maintenance.
• Also, the tracks are currently under great pressure after the 2005 increase of the permissible loading capacity for each wagon.
• Large projects to relieve the pressure, like the construction of dedicated freight corridors are in the pipeline, but will take time.

What are the issues with ‘Debroy Committe’ suggestions?

• In 2014, Debroy Committee was set-up suggest reforms and break the compartmentalisation of operations in the railways.
• Its final report suggested big structural changes and called for the introduction of ‘management generalism’ as against specialisation.
• One suggestion even called for the merger of all Group ‘A’ ngineering & civil services of the railways into one unified service.
• Drawbacks – These suggestions are immature as present system was evolved to handle the enormous size of the Indian railways.
• It is also rooted in the belief that specialists are too technical to have a strong vision, which is fundamentally wrong. 
• Also, reducing departments for better co-ordination in a massive organisations like the railways is not desirable.  
• If accepted, this could lead to the erosion of accountability and would be disastrous for railway safety & management.

What is the way ahead?

• A mechanism for departments to flourish and voice their genuine concerns is what is needed for enhancing co-ordination.
• Use of new techniques for assessing aptitudes, capabilities and cohesion are to be developed.
• Ultimately, appropriate powers should be vested in the DRMs, GMs and the Railway Board for hazzle free decision making.

Source: Indian Express