Parivartan Sangoshthi: Full List of Suggestions Presented by Top Officials to Railway Board and Ministry

Below is the list of reforms and suggestions made by top Indian Railways officials from across the country to the Railway Board at the Parivartan Sanghoshthi meet held on 7th and 8th of December in Delhi.

The meeting was attended by divisional and zonal officials from all over India, as well as officials from various production units and institutes of Indian Railways.

The Ministry also presented the targets set out by the Prime Minister’s Office for Indian Railways over the next few years at this meet.

The list below is organised according to key issues faced by the Indian Railways. The original structure is retained. No modifications have been made except for corrections to spelling mistakes or grammar, and expansion of some acronyms.

A. Organizational Reforms

1. Departmentalism is adversely affecting railway’s efficiency and effectiveness. Several suggestions have been received from many officers for merging of cadres viz (i) merging all cadres beyond SAG (Seniir Administrative Grade) (ii) Making 40-50% of SAG and above posts of all departments ex-cadre to be manned by officers of other departments and balance posts requiring specialized knowledge can be manned by specific domain officer, (iii) have a single service of officers for Railways or maximum two services, (iv) Merge Electrical & Mechanical cadres, merge IRPS (Indian Railways Personnel Service), IRTS (Indian Railways Traffic Service) & IRAS (Indian Railways Accounts Service) cadres.
2. To make the Board more effective in decision making and remove excessive departmental focus have a smaller Board of 4-5 Members organized on functional lines. Posting of Board Members to be on the ex-cadre basis.
3. The restructuring has resulted in a higher number of officers in SAG and HAG (Higher Administrative Grade). Few SAG officers may be posted in Divisions as coordinating Branch Officer (like Sr DEN Coordination) to build capacity in divisions commensurate to the delegations given to divisions recently in last 2 years. Further, this will utilize the SAG officers also in a better manner and will improve productivity.
4. 4. Selection of DRMs and GMs should be based on past performance of officers over entire career span. Age should not be the sole criteria. 360-degree evaluation as being done by DOPT (Department of Personnel and Training) for JS empanelment may be adopted for screening officers.
5. To make ADRMs more effective, APARs (Annual Performance Appraisal Report) of divisional officers should be routed through ADRM. At present ADRM has no say in writing APARs of divisional officers whom he is supposed to control.
6. Workshops should be separated from Zones and merged with respective PUs. Workshop may also be treated as independent cost/profit centre.
7. Rule of inter se seniority based on DOITS (Date Of Induction In Service) is against the law of natural justice causing lot of discontentment at the senior management level. This probably needs to be looked into for a total change of system in determining the inter se seniority across the various departments of IR.
8. Both ‘P’ Branch and Finance Branch in HQs and Railway Board should be decentralized and respective Finance and Personnel officers should be reporting directly to PHODs (Principal Head Of Department) / Board Members (Engineering, S&T, Traction. Traffic & Rolling Stock) to begin with. This is somewhat in line with the concept of integrated Finance prevailing since ages in all the Ministries. In the long run, exactly similar model should be implemented on IR also.
9. Security wing in the divisions needs to be under the direct and complete control of DRM and under the complete control of GM in line with the administrative control exercised by the District Magistrate and Home Secretary in the State.

B. Cost-cutting/expenditure control

1. Employee strength needs to be reduced in view of technology induction. modernisation and outsourcing. Employees to be reduced in planned manner — target 10% reduction in 3 years and further (upto 30% in phased manner. Unskilled staff should be minimized. Even we may think to reduce upto 50% staff by offering lucrative VRS (Voluntary Retirement Scheme). It is essential to reduce number of employees to make Railways viable as staff costs are over 60%.
2. Time study for the works being done in PUs (Production Units) or workshops shall be got done from outside agency as at present these norms are very lenient and result in huge expenditure due to incentive/overtime being paid to the people doing the job. This will result in huge saving of money as well as staff requirements.
3. I.R. is incurring a huge cost on the manpower component of services which have been outsourced. This is due to payment of Minimum wages. I.R. should rationalise its system of quantifying the work output by making it measurable, instead of paying for number of men deployed. This will not only improve the quality of service but will also save it’s a lot of money.
4. OBHS (On Board Housekeeping Services) to be reviewed to reduce scope, manpower and cost requirement, particularly in overnight trains.

C. Throughput/Mobility/Capacity enhancement

1. To increase speeds of Mail/ Express trains: All long-distance Mail/ exp trains should be run preferably with WAP5 locos with HOG (Head On Generation) converters or WAP7 locos in Push-Pull mode and timings of these trains should be reduced immediately. lt will increase line capacity as well as Punctuality of trains.
   1. All intercity trains should be run by T-18 (Vande Bharat) type of trains. and their timings should also be reduced.
   1. All LHB trains should nut at least at 130 KMPH immediately on tracks which are fit for 130 KMPH.
2. To increase speeds of Goods Trains: Different type of wagons though have potential of running at 100 KMPH but are cleared for lesser speeds. They should be got cleared at 100 KMPH and should be run with WAGS locos provided with DPWCS (Distributed Power Wireless Control System) in Push-Pull mode. CLW is already producing locos with DPWCS. This will drastically improve the average speed of goods train which is around 25 KMPH at present. Even without an increase in the speed of wagons to 100 KMPH if this is done it will increase average goods speed tremendously.
3. At present for examination of any coaching rake minimum time prescribed for primary inspection is 6 hours with change in technology to LHB its time and motion study should be got done from outside agency its time can be reduced at least by two to three hours. This will be the benefit of investment on better technology rakes as well as the capacity to maintain coaching rakes of, each depot will increase tremendously thus IR can run more passenger trains with the existing infrastructure. Creating coaching maintenance facility is a huge cost for IR.
4. Zero-based timetable to be introduced throughout Indian Railway. At present Time Allowances are given in Inter-Zonal and Inter Divisional level trains, reducing the average speed of coaching trains. Further, all goods trains should run at a uniform speed of 100 kmph.
5. Asset utilization on I.R. needs to be increased to improve productivity, capacity utilization and profitability. Coaches and wagons are not being run at maximum design speeds. This is also affecting throughput, average speeds of goods trains, wagon turnaround time, customer satisfaction and overall efficiency. Average speeds of goods trains are only in the range of 25 KMPH. This should be doubled. All goods trains should be run at 100 kmph and coaching trains at 110/130 KMPH. Necessary inputs on wagons, coaches and tracks and adequate locomotive powering of trains should be given in a time-bound manner to ensure this. There is a need to have a definite plan for this.
6. Increasing the speed of turnouts from mainline to loop line to 50 KMPH over the next 3 years on GQ and GD.

D. Earning Enhancement

1. Apart front building new lines/doubling etc there is it need to increase the capacity of existing trains both passenger and goods trains by adopting higher height of coaches and wagons up to 5.1/5.2 Meter under OHE is within existing Schedule of Dimensions (SOD) and axle load limits. New design of higher coaches and wagons should be developed. With limited infrastructure inputs, capacity can be quickly enhanced and give results within 3 to 5 years and show in the bottom line of I.R.
2. Apart from bulk, there is a need to focus on the untapped smalls, parcel, e-commerce and perishable traffic segment which is growing fast. There is need to run timetabled parcel trains develop capabilities to carry smalls and deliver door to door and ensure pick-up and delivery within 24-48 hours.
3. To generate more NFR (Non-Fare Revenue) a chain of 24X7 convenience stores can be permitted at railway stations where passengers can purchase for daily needs. These stores are doing roaring business at Petrol pumps. DRM to be empowered for this.
4. Diesel locos are becoming surplus and are being grounded. If sold as scrap they will fetch its 25 lakhs to its 50 lakhs. However, if they are exported to foreign countries, they may fetch an amount of Rs 2 to 4 crores each. In next 2 years around 4000 diesel locos will become surplus. A policy needs to be prepared for their proper monetization.
5. DRMs may be empowered and delegated powers for commercial use of land in certain specific areas. The present process of routing land leasing proposals through Zone, RLDA (Railway Land Development Authority) & Board is very lengthy and sometimes takes years.

E. Productivity enhancement

1. Yardsticks of all departments should be re-examined as per the technology introduced and activities outsourced in the departments. Still, old yardsticks are being used even after the introduction of technology and outsourcing and staff is unfertilized. Work-study and benchmarking should be got conducted from a professional agency to ensure the productive output of at least 6 hours. This will reduce staff costs and also redistribute staff wherever it is required.
2. There is a need to introduce multiskilling for all staff and supervisors to improve productivity as well as to cope up with the enhanced workload without adding to new staff. In workshops and PUs only one category of staff should be there except for welder.
3. Inspections have increased significantly as SAG plus officers has increased in Headquarters. Compliance to these inspections is consuming a disproportionate amount of time of officers in divisions and field and is reducing their effectiveness. Inspections should be carried out strictly as stipulated in Codes and Manuals.
4. Branches of Unions in divisions and union and officeholders need to be reduced and privileges given to Union office bearers (transfer, posting etc) need to be seriously reviewed. There are nearly 250 union office bearers of various unions in each Division; overall around 50,000 on I.R who practically yield no work output. A large number of supervisors who arc at cutting edge of field decision making and execution are union office bearers. This is severely affecting I.R.’s productivity. Supervisors should not be allowed to become office bearers of Unions. This issue needs serious attention.

F. System/Process Improvement to improve Delivery & Safety

1. Flexibility needs to be provided to GMs and DRMs to re-appropriate funds under various demands, plan heads, primary units and source of funds so as to channelize funds into priority projects and works. Empower GM for fund re-appropriation across all plan heads and across subheads. Meanwhile, DRMs may be empowered to re-appropriate funds amongst various primary units on the same demand and within same plan head-on various works. This will enable faster execution of projects.
2. Lot of powers have been delegated to DRMs in recent past but control over most critical processes is with Headquarters and as a result, DRMs cannot fully exercise many of these powers freely eg. Track Machine deployment, re-appropriation of funds, catering decisions passenger amenities decisions, distribution of work to executing agencies etc. are with HQ PHODs. These activities need to be reviewed so that delegations can be effectively utilized by DRMs.
3. DRM should have the power to hire technical talent on a temporary short-term basis (from GeM/NICSI or other sources) to help divisions to achieve desired targets and to speed up the execution of projects.
4. To fast track completion of yard remodelling, prior sanction of CRS may not be mandatory if there is no major modification. Approval of PHOD & Zone should be sufficient for this. This will fast track the yard works. At present CRS are very busy with doubling, RE etc
5. The time-tested Engineering wings model of procurement of P-way material and track machines should be followed for all technical wings Traction, Rolling Stock & S&T. In this model, the Tender Accepting Authority and convener for procurement of safety and passenger amenity items should be from the consuming department. The Stores member shall be the 3rd member. This shall avoid performance ambiguity and shall quicken the pace of decision making and scale-up efficiency of delivery.
6. DRMs to be empowered to conclude Engineering Works contracts including track fittings as Track Fitting Renewal (TFR) is not done completely as all fittings are not available at a time. At present Track fittings are procured by HQ office.
7. Productive time of Branch Officers and their staff is wasted in repeated submission of various data pertaining to their departments. A web portal like Track Management System (TMS) should be developed by all departments to save precious time of Branch officers.
8. I.R. should have a Vision & Mission Statement and a Corporate Plan for the organization for next 3 to 5 years for comprehensive planning and this should be widely disseminated with all employees.
9. All vendor approving authority should also enter into rate contract for the item with the approved vendor. This rate should be included in the vendor directory. At present multiple tenders for the same item are being floated by various zonal railways. This will improve material availability of vital and safety items in the field.
10. Age-old Codes and Manual need to be revised in view of large scale changes in technology, up-gradation and new policy circulars. Revise all codes and manuals over next 6-8 months.

G. Customer Orientation

1. Siding policy should be more customer-friendly with following changes: (i) staff cost payable by siding owner be discontinued, (ii) freight may be charged on a continuous distance basis to the buffer end of all sidings and doing away with siding charges.
2. Allot 2 berth quota to doctors in every coach in the train who will volunteer to attend to patients on the route during Golden Hour. The doctor will have to register and agree to emergency medical needs of passengers in trains. Ile will carry his kit and life-saving medicines.
3. Permit train side vending by agency other than IRCTC. This will reduce illegal vending substantially as vending is not done by IRCTC in many long-distance trains and they are not provided with pantry car either.
4. Training of officers and staff needed to improve customer orientation, business-friendly attitude and have higher ethical standards.

H. HR Culture improvement

1. All Railway employees to be brought under insurance cover for expenditure incurred in treatment in private hospital with full premium paid by Railways and directly settled by insurance companies. Private hospital empanelment may thereafter be stopped.
2. There is a tendency amongst Officers and Supervisors to indiscriminately award outstanding APARs to most of the officials because adequate time and energy is not spent to distinguish between good and bad performers. A ceiling should be fixed for all cadres for different gradings viz not more than 15% can be rated Outstanding. not more than 25% as Very Good and so on.
3. Create fear-free working environment. Protect officers from unwarranted vigilance cases for trivial/technical lapses
4. Have n Centralised PF Organization directly linked to salary and drawl of advances if any. This will enhance staff satisfaction and also reduce costs. Implement Transfer policy in fair and transparent manner. (have an annual transfer policy as followed by KVs. NTPC etc.