Indian Railways is plagued by so many problems at time, that concentrating on just 1 problem will let the other problems grow out of control. Head of KayaKalp council should be a reputed person (Like Mr ESreedharan) having good understanding of railways while members of non-railway but relevant fields should be there.
Bowing down to union muscle means there will be no appreciable reforms. First impact of any reform shall be on the employees of Indian Railways. Reforms means changes in the ways of day to day working, and it will be Rly workers who will be driven out of comfort zones first.
Govt....
more... has to decide, whether it would shun the much needed reforms and allow the naturally most efficient mode of transport (IRlys) to remain inefficient & rot. The fallout will be the majority of freight & passenger traffic shall continue to be carried by road and air which are much more energy intensive, costly, more polluting than movement by Rail. This will be causing lot of damage to the economy of nation & inconvenience to 130 crore people of India.
Many questions arise at this juncture-
Should the polluting Road & air travel should be allowed to replace energy efficient & environment friendly rail travel ?
Should the Road ways & airlines be allowed to continue carry the traffic inefficiently, much to the detriment of Indian economy, which should be carried efficiently by Rlys ?
Should IRlys be allowed to work with slow decision making, continuing with age old organization structure & work methods instead of adopting the latest management & work practices in consonance with today’s technological development?
Should the unions be allowed to keep IRlys & nation (130 crore citizens of india) to ransom for their petty interests??
The share of freight traffic of IRlys has fallen from about 90% at the time of independence to around 30-35% today and is continuously falling similar is fate of passenger traffic. The role played by IRlys in the National economy is continuously shrinking. At this rate, just like Pakistan Railways, IRlys shall be completely marginalized and isolated from Indian economy.
The trucks, buses, cars and aero planes have snatched the role historically played by Indian railways. Truck/bus/aero plane operators had kept pace with the technological developments and had undergone sea change with changing times. On the other hand, the IRlys is too slow to change and still sticking to age old working practices and organization.
No person, no organization, no country is more powerful than the greatest entity known to us i.e. time. Those who keep pace with time survive & thrive and those who do not change are doomed to die. IRlys is a huge organization and it is dying a very slow death. Aged union leaders may not fore-see such a bad condition of their beloved organization, but the young employees in IRlys may actually see this one day.
