Railway Board restructuring gets green flag: Vinod Yadav to be first CEO

The current restructuring will be a zero-cost exercise and money will be saved by surrendering posts in the board and stopping duplication of work

The government on Wednesday cleared the restructuring of the Railway Board to move to a corporate model, and the appointment of Vinod Kumar Yadav as the first chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the board.

Yadav is currently the chairman of the Railway Board. The Union Cabinet had in December 2019 cleared a proposal for restructuring of the board through a leaner structure on functional lines headed by the chairman and four members — covering infrastructure, operations and business development, rolling stock, and finance. In addition, the board will also include sectoral experts from industry, finance, economics, and management fields. Based on the decision, the chairman will be the cadre-controlling officer responsible for Human resources (HR) with assistance from a director-general (HR).

In addition to the CEO, the government has also appointed the four members — Pradeep Kumar for infrastructure, PC Sharma for traction and rolling stock, PS Mishra for operations and business development, and Manjula Rangarajan for finance. The appointments were cleared by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC). Earlier, the railway services were organised into various departments like traffic, civil, mechanical, electrical, signal and telecom, stores, personnel, and accounts. These departments are vertically separated from top to bottom and are headed by secretary-level officers called ‘members’ of the Railway Board…Read More

No decision on passenger and freight fare hike, says Railway Board

The railway board chairman further said that efforts are on to ensure that after next five years, passengers do not have to face difficulties due to waitlisted tickets.

Railway Board Chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav has said no decision has been taken to increase passenger and freight fares. On Thursday, Yadav had said the railways was in the process of “rationalising” its passengers and freight fares.

He told reporters here on Saturday the railways will work towards providing better facilities to its passengers and would run more trains. “No decision has been taken to increase the passenger and freight fares. In the New Year, the Railway will try to give better facilities to its passengers and also focus on running of more trains,” Yadav said.

The railway board chairman further said that efforts are on to ensure that after next five years, passengers do not have to face difficulties due to waitlisted tickets. He also informed a private train operator is needed on Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata rail sections. “For this, private train operators will be invited and the necessary approval of the government has been obtained,” he said….

Eye on 2019 polls, Modi govt sets monthly deadlines for railway projects

Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani has set targets for zonal railways for timely commissioning of new lines, gauge conversion and doubling projects announced in the budget this year

With general elections just a year away, the railways have set monthly targets for the completion of its major projects with an aim to finish work in time for the country to go to polls in 2019.

In a letter sent to all 16 zones, Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani set such targets for zonal railways for timely commissioning of new lines, gauge conversion and doubling projects announced in the budget this year and said that the tendency to keep most of the works for the last quarter be avoided.

In fact, section-wise deadlines were set for completion in 2018-2019 for the projects to link the northeast to the main rail network.

The projects were Narendra Modi-led government's programmes with a 2020 deadline.

While the Bogibeel project in Dibrugarh, Assam was assigned a completion target of June 2018, in the Jiribam-Imphal line, the Vangaichungpao-Kaimai-Kambiron a section was set a deadline of February 2019. In the (Dimapur) Dhansiri - Kohima (Zubza) line in Nagaland, a section, Dhansiri-Sulhovi was earmarked for completion by March 2019.

Needless to say, the timely commissioning of these projects calls for meticulous planning in respect of preparatory works like approval of plans, arrangement of materials, fixing of executing agencies, creation of posts for maintenance of new assets, fixing of tentative dates for Commissioner Railway Safety inspection, Lohani said in the letter issued on May 9.

All zonal railways must set up a system through which finalisation of projects and other inputs required to achieve the targets were reviewed and monitored at the level of additional general managers, he said.

Timelines for these activities have to be so prepared in advance that the final outcome of commissioning of the projects for traffic is accompanied with the deadline, he said, adding that senior officials of the zones should monitor the projects.

Indian Railways to invest about Rs 2,000-cr for expansion

Capacity of Rae Bareli coach factory alone is to be increased five times to 5,000 coaches a year

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal today said Indian Railways will be making an investment of around Rs 2,000 crore, in the next couple of years, for expansion of its various manufacturing units across the country.

The capacity of the Rae Bareli coach factory alone is expected to be increased five times to 5,000 coaches per year, the minister said at a CII event in New Delhi. However, he did not divulge the timeline for the same.(economy today)

The Indian Railways manufacturing capacity from its three factories — Intergral Coach Factory, Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Modern Coach Factory, Rae Bareli (Uttar Pradesh) and Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala (Punjab) is expected to be ramped up to 7,000-8,000 LHB (Linke Hofmann Busch – named after its German supplier) coaches from the current 4,000 coaches.

At present, around 51,000 Integrated Coach Factory (ICF) coaches and 5,500 LHB coaches are made in the Kapurthala factory.

“A major part of the investment would go to the ICF in Chennai,” Ravindra Gupta, Member (Rolling Stock), Railway Board told reporters in New Delhi.

According to Gupta, infrastructure improvement at the Modern Coach Factory in Rae Bareli is expected to take about one-and-a-half years or so and a similar time horizon for ICF is also expected. Once the modernisation work is complete, Indian Railways would be in a position to ramp up its LHB manufacturing capacity to 7,000-8,000 coaches from the current 4,000.....READ MORE