Present division of power is detrimental to railways’ growth: Railway Board Chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav

Vinod Kumar Yadav, chairman of the Railway Board, speaks to Shantanu Nandan Sharma on the rationale behind the massive restructuring of the board and the unification of eight railway services into one. Edited excerpts:

What’s the rationale behind the restructuring of the Railway Board and the merging of all eight services into one?The Railways at present is vertically split into eight silos — mechanical, electrical, traffic, et al. There is one board member for each vertical. The key problem that we have faced is that each board member is interested in the well-being of her own department and the promotional prospects of her own service. A member is more concerned about the growth of manpower, posts and assets of her own department. That’s why no one is focusing on the corporate growth of the Railways in its entirety.

Also, some railway services are getting promotion four years ahead of others. For example, the DRM (divisional railway manager) of one service is of 1992 batch and of another is of 1988 batch. Now, all the eight services become one — the Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS). Each officer belonging to any of the erstwhile eight services will get equitable opportunity. There will be parity. It’s goodbye to inter-services rivalry. Everyone will now work for the well-being of Indian Railways.

We went by the Prakash Tandon committee’s recommendations of 1994. We had discussed the recommendations of the Bibek Debroy committee, too. It had recommended two services instead of eight (one for engineering services and another for non-engineering ones). But we were apprehensive that even if there are two services, there would be infighting. There can be a balance if eight services fight, but not when two fight. So, we decided to go for one service.

What will be the recruitment process for the new service?
We are going to change the recruitment process from the next season (2021). All IRMS recruits will come from the Union Public Service Commission’s (UPSC) civil services examination, and not from engineering services. We will ask the UPSC to give us officers with specialisations. If we need 100 officers, we will ask the UPSC to provide us a particular number of officers with electrical, mechanical, civil and electronics background, and a few non-engineers too.

When will the changes be seen on the ground?
A group of ministers (GoM) will finalise in the next three months a modality for unifying all eight services into one. Also, the GoM will take the final call on how to recruit new IRMS officers.

The chairman of the Railway Board is already the head of the organisation. Why is the post being redesignated as CEO?
At present, the Railway Board chairman is one among the equals on the board. All members are equivalent to a secretary of the Government of India. A member’s viewpoint, in the present setup, is considered final as far as her department is concerned. The chairman only coordinates interdepartmental issues and takes some policy decisions. At times, such a division of power at the board level is detrimental to the Railways’ growth.