Indian Railway Management Service and engineers !

Thanks to Sri Piyush Goyal , Railway Board and Govt of India a golden era now for engineers of India !! How?

Almost all metro projects headed by IAS . Tendering and award of contracts by consultants , verified by consultants and paid by finance .. good easy model with no intellectual engineering input to improve . 

Reg professionalism less said the better . Bridge engineering used to be top proud seat but got progressively closed down . Then new culture of prime consultants, consultants etc layers finally even to certify bills put in place to assure safety while paying contractors but still assure fair returns to stakeholders. 

The system has become putrid . Anyway simple stores code application contract tender for design construction including engineering and trouble shooting in place,  every technical job is now open to non technical person. Management is key word . 

So UPSC will scrap all engineering services for railways and include IRMS under allied services  in IAS exam I think. That’s rational consequence . 

Minister says depending on aptitude the officer gets posted whether infrastructure or business development or rolling stock and traction. 

So to my mind Railway Staff college may conduct to check for aptitude like we do for babies under a year age, which object the baby crawls to perhaps . By the by why Railway University now At Vadodara? Not needed perhaps. 

RDSO can be shut down and test facilities may be handed over to CSIR perhaps with all those assets. 

Testing and certification too can be outsourced. 

Trains and services privatized, infrastructure too maintenance privatized with another third party doing the QA checks .

So who will go to Zambia or Malaysia  as tech experts from railways? RITES will have a problem to claim railway technical expertise. May be reverse technical advice will happen from those countries to us .

Happy times ahead with no responsibility but full safety to own self. :  I Am Safe .. let public go enjoy their karma 😀🙏

But most dangerous is being ignorant of railway which is as technically complex as a heart surgery and prone to faults and accidents involving heavy loss of lives , needs constant multidisciplinary technical inputs which is beyond the generalist management competence . 

But if a review is taken the following is a compromise perhaps .

We need to step back and evaluate the impact of this decision, instead of reacting emotionally.

It is no one’s argument that there is no departmentalism in IR. Despite efforts by our seniors and contemporaries, we have been unable to get rid of this malaise.

One all-encompassing department is, however, too drastic an option. They should have started with an IR Management Service, members of which to be drawn from all departments after a certain number of years. IRMS members would occupy identified general posts including that of ADRM, DRM, AGM and GM and the Rly Board members as revised only with IRMS officers.

After 20 years of service , UPSC selects the willing  officers for empaneling in to IRMS . 

The technical departments would continue with their own seniorities and postings. So also for Traffic, Accounts and Personnel.

That would leave all engineers the opportunity to excel in their respective fields. 

What is really required additionally is financial independence for IR. The merger of IR’s finances with the General Budget has been an unqualified disaster. There is no financial accountability now.

The role of the CRB as CEO is to my mind a good step. I have been witness to many important and desperately required decisions pended because of differences between Members, with the CRB powerless to push through the proposals.

Most important reform is processes should be reformed to make accountability center and power centre synonymous . Konkan Railway example. 

A last comment. IR is a service organisation. We live for our customers. Can a Government Department run by bureaucrats  deliver on customer satisfaction? 

The Government should pause and rethink.

Regards and happy New Year to all !