Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Union Cabinet in Tuesday approved major restructuring in the Railway Board. The new board will be downsized from 8 members to 5. As per sources, the 5 members will include the chairperson and 4 other members comprised of heads of merged cadres into a single Railway Management System.
Instead of Railway Board Members for Traffic, Rolling Stock, Traction and Engineering, the newly constituted Board will have Members for Operation, Business Development, Human Resources, Infrastructure and Finance, the source said.
Indian Railways will now have only one cadre -- Indian Railway Service, instead of current eight services for various departments including Engineering, Traffic, Mechanical and Electrical.
Highlights from Railway Board restructure
1. End of Departmentalism: Department's to be merged in the Railway Board, aimed at expediting decision making and creating a vision of the organisation as one. A leaner structure
2. Unification of Services: Reccommended by various committes, unification of services is aimed at reforming the Indian Railways.
3. Chairman Railway Board: CRB to head the Railway Board, act as CEO
4. IRMS to be implemented: Indian Railways Management System (IRMS) to be implemented by next recruitment cycle.
The newly officers will be from engineering and non-engineering disciplines and that will be posted as per their aptitude and specialisation.
According to the Modi government, the reforms announced today are in continuation with the series of decisions under which the Railway Budget was merged with the Union Budget, GMs and field officers were empowered and competitive operators are being allowed to run trains. The unification of services, that was announced today, was recommended by various committees for reforming Indian Railways. The reforms have been taken by “overwhelming support” of railway officers at the “Parivartan Sangoshthi” held by Indian Railways recently.
The restructuring of Railways will end departmentalism, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday, after the Union Cabinet approved the downsizing of the strength of the Railway Board from eight to five, including the chairman, and merging its different cadres and departments into a single entity.
Instead of Railway Board Members for Traffic, Rolling Stock, Traction and Engineering, the newly constituted board will have five members which will include Members for Operation, Business Development, Infrastructure and Finance among others, he said.
Indian Railways will now have only one cadre -- Indian Railway Service, instead of the current eight services for various departments, including Engineering, Traffic, Mechanical and Electrical.
The Railways will also now have just two departments -- Railway Protection Force and Medical Service Department -- with all its other departments coming under one Railway Management System.
"The restructuring will ensure end of departmentalism and smooth operations," Goyal said.
Sources said this was done to ensure the end of turf wars among the different cadres and departments which was harming railway operations.
Restructuring of the Railway Board was also recommended by the Bibek Debroy Committee on Indian Railways in 2015.
The panel said in its report that the Indian Railways' centralised structure and departmentalisation was adversely affecting the Railways' work culture and narrowing its approach to department-specific goals.
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