[amit_vce]

A point which i like to add here which can be considered a factor to growth of indian railways , and may be other departments in india can follow for a good effect .


In indian railways ,there is a norm , the people who constitutes the board should be from indian railways only , they starts in railways with lower posts and make to the big league spanning all years in same carrier. So the people who are accountable for decisions in indian railways know in and out of indian railways. While in other departments in india the decision making bodies are bureucrats who serve in lots of departments and not having the whole experience in one department.

This can be an important factors which contributed in railways success.

[amit_vce]

Originally Posted by subodh_iit

Where there is a will, there is a way.. The raising of capital is not such a big task, as it is made out to be..

Look, what the Government is doing.. It is modernizing existing Airports. It is improving Infrastructure in Metros.. A small time back, even these would have been dismissed as something requiring too much capital.. But now they are very much being implemented..

We all know Infrastructure Development is Capital-Intensive. But this does not mean that we should leave the things as they are. IF India harbors the dream of becoming a global power, a plunge has to be taken or else no amount of GDP growth is going to help...

The ways for raising capital are many and some of them are - providing Tax Rebate to Corporations for an Infrastructure fund, adding an Infrastructure Cess to Income Tax, or cutting down on meaningless public and defence expenditure...

Subodh , I agree with you. Even I smell significant improvements happening in improving the infrastructer of indian cities , basically due to the push from outsourcing row. Next big sectors to make buisness are manufactring and agriculture.

Anyway lets get back to railways privitization. Well its already began in gradual basis and keeping in mind the profits , for an example the shatabi on board entertainment project is outsource to an indian company ( dont know the name , may be reliance ) . Also Laalu is talking about privitization of fright transport. Atleast some thing is started to improve the situation of infrasture in country.

[amit_vce]

Originally Posted by abhi_g1

ok agreed but it requires a lot of capital cost bhai,from where will it come.even if it comes,it requires a hell of a tsak to pass it in parliament
me afraid of another track ghotala

Abhi , When you talk about capital cost , I feel if indian government announces today that indian railways needs to be privitized and they need bidders , I am very much sure hell lot of international companies will be eager to get this institution and i feel they will make it more effective from passanger's perspective, Ya I know there will be roar in parliament and it will be tough to pass it. Bacause its a money making deal and every party wants to get it and oppose other. so that may be problem and not the capital cost.

The best example is delhi metro , the project completed with in time and best part is it is making profit along with satisfying the passengers financially.

[subodh_iit]

I will try to answer a few of the questions that I raised earlier

1. Should Lalu be credited with Improvement in Railways?

Upto an extent, yes.. Because, he had the conviction to give power in the hands of his Babus. Then probably he took vivid interest in the department rather than just concentrating on how much money he can make from it.

People tend to discredit him, because of his earlier involvement in a lot of scams. But if we look at it from a detached perspective, he did play a role.

All said and done, normally there are people who do not come in the limelight who are real heroes and in this case also, they are the real turnaround heroes. Still, some amount of praise can be reserved for Laloo for having belief in them.

I might not consider him a great leader, but he has it in him to rally the masses as well as taking good decisions because the man appear to be very intelligent and shrewd despite missing sophistication.

2. Is an operating ratio of 0.78 good enough or more improvement is required in this area.

In large organizations, an operating ratio of .78 is considered excellent. To put things in perspective, even Reliance operates at higher ratio.

However the need of the hour is to change the emphasis from profit generation to infrastructure investment to improve the lots.

3. How much and Why should the Railways be privatized?

Privatization is just a means and not the end. So, if the end can be achieved without privatization, no problems..

But if privatization is to be done, the proper clauses need to be in place so that uninterested parties do not get in just to make moolah.


4. What new initiatives need to be taken to revolutionize Railways.

Already Answered. Regarding Hi-Speed Trains..

Comments and Criticism Welcome..

[The0ne]

a. if not...then lets see the progress he makes on customer travel front(safety, hygiene, food quality, delay, ticketless travelling)...he has fared excellently on the advt and freight traffic front(20k cr profits)....
if he fails then shd b privatised..
b. lets have ppp...metro rail...world class...ppp between govt and japanes corp...
c. total pvt...as in telecom and airlines sector...dont create monopoly nd make it competitive..govt has got other serious wrkx to b done...leave rail...

[subodh_iit]

@ abhi

1. Ask any of the mods to change the name of the thread to Indian Railways Case Study: (Laloo's Role, Privatization and Other Issues) to broaden the horizon of discussions.

2. PM desiguru, MvB ACM No9 to drop in with their views. They can really contribute a lot.

3. Go easy with the opening of new threads. You opened a new thread on America's Dadagiri today.. This way, they all can get locked by Mahip. It is better if we try to give off our best at the fewer threads.

[Mahip]

Originally Posted by subodh_iit

1. Ask any of the mods to change the name of the thread to Indian Railways Case Study: (Laloo's Role, Privatization and Other Issues) to broaden the horizon of discussions.

Renamed the thread.

[MvB ACM No9]

Hmmm... I dunno but nobody seems to really be looking into the structure of Indian Railways and all of that.

1. Profitability:

IR has a HUGE cost structure that could be trimmed. IR, in addition to the infrastructure if provides the employees, actually has almost a parallel economy running! They even have a complete phone network exclusively for IR. These are obviously completely free and extend across the country. This is just a small example BTW, of the costs... Privatization would see HUGE changes, but one can never really say about the complete effects without a complete study of the structure of IR as a whole.

2. Lalu:

For this, you need to look at what the organizational hierarchy of Railways is. Look at the Railway Board for example. Just what role does the Railways Minister play in the Board? Frankly? A very, very miniscule role...restricted mainly to just authorizing decisions made by the administrators (on the Board).

So, in terms of whether Lalu has been good, my opinion is that it really has made no difference who the Minister is. It's just that he has been very, very lucky with the people below him in the Civil Service among certain other environmental factors.

Modernisation:

People are speaking of high-speed trains etc. But here, I must start by asking what the priorities are for IR!!! Is it purely profits? I don't think so. Unlike flight travel, IR's stated objectives as well as their REQUIRED objectives should include reach and accessible means of transport.

So, the primary focus needs to be on efficiency. It's all very well to have the reach (which IR now does have) and also to speak of high-tech trains, but what about the efficiency and the ground needs to run such a system? What IR really needs to do first up is focus on improving the infrastructure (including the manpower) and then on the efficiency of their operations. The adherence to schedules is a prime focus area for me as also the entire station management and safety standards!!!

Can you imagine high-speed trains running on the infra that exists today? With the safety standards? Manual railway-crossings? No control of the areas surrounding tracks? Hmmm... I think not...

Loads more thoughts, but will post those later...

To close though, I don't think privatization of the entire IR system is the right step at the moment. I do however, see areas that CAN benefit from this. For starters, the catering and the station management of some major stations should be privatized. Pretty complex thoughts on this actually...

Cheers!
- Darth M

PS: The details I mentioned about IR were gleaned from an uncle (ex- Chairman, Railway Board) and friends who have worked in IR or are working in IR... Later then...

[ringsofsaturn]

Guys..Just a few things that i think we are overlooking:

Although laloo declared profits last yr.. why are we overlooking the fact that the govt allocates 6 to 7k crores each year in the budget to the railways.

Also if railways is such a profitable venture why arent the various agencies like the WB IMF rushing to fun its expansion/improvement etc..Thr has to be something deep that is not being revealed and I am afraid it may be on the lines of Enron/Worldcom coz thr is no accountability of the railways..Its a Govt agency reporting to the govt....


These are personal opinions...

[subodh_iit]

Originally Posted by ringsofsaturn

Guys..Just a few things that i think we are overlooking:

Although laloo declared profits last yr.. why are we overlooking the fact that the govt allocates 6 to 7k crores each year in the budget to the railways.

Also if railways is such a profitable venture why arent the various agencies like the WB IMF rushing to fun its expansion/improvement etc..Thr has to be something deep that is not being revealed and I am afraid it may be on the lines of Enron/Worldcom coz thr is no accountability of the railways..Its a Govt agency reporting to the govt....


These are personal opinions...

Accusing Govt. of conspiracy theories ..... Am I right?

So Laloo has created another fodder scam

ROS, the actual thing is the operating ratio of 0.78 is indeed a reality rather than cooked up. Second thing is, Private sector is eager to participate in the exercise now. I am not aware about IMF, and other agencies so will choose not to comment. But surely this is not the correct way to reason things out..

There are so many organizations that are making healthy profits and still IMF and other agencies are not running forward to finance them.

ENRON/WOrldcom is a diff story altogether. They gulped private money. Here public money is involved. And the results are mostly shown not on the +ve side but on the -ve side only..