What prevented Railways from implementing the suggestions given by the earlier expert committees?
This was one of the questions that the committee headed by Bibek Debroy, set up to restructure the Railway Board, asked the Railway Board Chairman and some Board Members in its first meeting on Friday.
The Government recently set up a committee headed by Debroy, research professor with Centre for Policy Research, to recommend steps to restructure the Railway Board.
“Today was the first meeting. We want to hear what the Railway Board has to say...The committee members were already in touch over e-mails and have gone through various reports since 1994. Given that we have to submit the report in one year, we have decided to form various sub-groups,” Debroy told
The committee plans to meet other Board Members, recognised Railway Unions and other railway officials (including former railway officials) on October 29-30 to get their views.
The committee has also planned field visits to Kolkata and Mumbai (to interact with two railway zones in each city), Varanasi (to interact with the production unit) and Korba (to get a perspective regarding coal transportation, from where the Railways gets the largest revenues).
“We will prepare a draft report in six months, which will be put out in public domain and invite comments,” he said.
The mandate of the committee includes reorganising and restructuring the Board and subsequently the Department to separate policy making from operations and encourage inter-departmental coordination. It also has to suggest ways wherein policy making focuses on long-term and medium-term planning issues and operations focus on day-to-day functioning. It also has to recommend ways to exchange officers between the Railways and other departments. The panel will also make an estimate of the Railways’ financial needs and ensure appropriate framework and policies to raise resources, both internally and from outside the Government. It will also examine and suggest modalities for implementing the Cabinet decision on setting up a Rail Tariff Authority.