Railway Reforms - Article published in TOI of 1st July 2014

Jul 01 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

INSIDE VIEW- Railways in decline, it's time for overhaul

Ashwani Lohani





That Railways, the great monolith often christened as the economic lifeline of the nation, is in for a major overhaul is both sad as well as gratifying. After all, even the most modern machines require periodic overhauls and therefore why not organizations?
Actually , the Railways are in crying need for an overhaul.
The recent spate of accidents and the general public perception of an organization that still delivers where many others fail to, albeit not up to the satisfaction of customers, is the sad story of the Railways.It's an organization that carries over 20 million passengers a day and over thousand million tonnes of freight a year. But, it has almost reached its limits in its present shape and structure. And that's where the nub lies. There's no longer time to beat about the bush -rather it's time to call a spade a spade.
An archaic, feudal and sycophantic organization steeped in complex processes cannot be expected to meet the expectations of 21st century India.
Its three-tier structure on departmental lines, with a redundant tier in the middle, with its cadres aligned on similar lines is the real issue that is preventing a monopoly commercial organization from meeting the country's aspirations.
At one level, the well-researched reports made by persons of eminence -Prakash Tandon, Rakesh Mohan and Kakodkar need to be acted upon. At another level, the organizational structure needs to be shaken.
The famous Railgate scandal that surfaced and shook the nation almost a year ago failed to make any dent in the collective psyche of the organization. What emerged was just one symptom of a flourishing malaise, but the disease continues to grow unchecked.
How can an organization, often considered the epitome of corrupt practices, meet the needs of a rapidly emerging nation?
Leadership or the lack of it has been a key issue with this gigantic organization. Vision has been the biggest casualty .
The departmental structure is the underlying reason behind this as it has created satraps, each with their own jagir. This has created a situation where almost everyone always has a perfectly valid reason for not delivering.
The arrival of a new government has signalled chang ing times and hope, both in the hearts of the common man and the honest bureaucrat.
Hopefully , the reasons behind the Railways performing below par and also regularly failing to meet the expectations of a nation on the move would now find suitable redressal.
Look at history . It took less than 25 years for the quadrilateral connecting the four metros to be built, and each hill railways took less than a decade to be commissioned. And, this happened in an era when both technology and transportation were primitive. That 80% of the route we have at present was built in the first 94 years with 20% taking the next 67 years says it all.
The solution lies in simplifying the maze of complex rules, procedures and processes that this monolith is mired in, spurred primarily by a feeling of mistrust that pervades like mist. The answer lies in restructuring and trimming the huge bureaucracy that complicates this organization each passing day .
Increasing route kilometres by quadrupling the golden quadrilateral to begin with, creating the much-needed new passenger and freight terminals and ushering in an era of real high-speed travel, among other goals, would necessitate a radically different approach that is beyond the capabilities of the existing structure.
Basic improvements, therefore, would need to be followed up by measures that usher in a true corporate culture. The nation cannot be held to ransom by an organization that underperforms in a target-driven business scenario.

Accidents linger on - The rail way

Beginning with the bomb blasts at the Chennai railway station on the 1^st of May 2014, there have been four tragedies classified as accidents on the Indian Railway system in the last two months. The bomb blast incident was followed by the 4^th May accident on the Konkan railway system wherein twenty died, 26^th May collision of the Gorakhdham Express killing twenty five and the 25^th June derailment involving the Dibrugarh Rajdhani wherein four persons breathed their last. Yet it is much more than mere numbers game as road accidents alone account for over a lakh and thirty five thousand deaths per annum in the country. A major railway accident irrespective of the number of people that lose their life is a national catastrophe that shakes the collective psyche of the nation and conveys an impression that all is not well with the country.

Such accidents are invariably followed by compensation and a CRS enquiry that goes into the basic causes leading to the incident. Platitudes are mouthed in the silent backdrop of a hectic blame game being played amongst different railway departments. Yet it is certain that the railway brass is shaken to the core by the spate of accidents else how without even a preliminary enquiry, railways proclaimed Maoists as the perpetrators of the accident, a charge promptly and vehemently denied by the federal home ministry and the state government.

Railways being a human centric organization, human failures are bound to happen, howsoever much we may like to decry the same. Six Sigma, theoretically the best possible performance talks of a one in a million rate of failure and yet in almost all areas of our operations, the railway employees are consistently performing much better than that. The employees at the cutting edge level therefore should ideally remain above reproach, yet that does not happen. In the eagerness to apportion blame and inflict punishments and in the process close the file till the next calamity strikes, railway staff and also officers at the base levels are severely taken up as if they have by their acts of commission caused the accident to happen. This in my view is not the right way to go about things.

Until the realization that accidents and consequently the safety environment on the railways or for that matter any other organization is merely a symptom and not the malaise, sinks in, rhetoric shall continue to preside over rational thought. Perhaps it is all about how organizations are run, how leadership roles play their part in bringing about quantum improvements in performance including the operational and safety scenarios that has not yet appeared in the radar of those who matter yet do not matter in the running of monoliths like the railways.

An archaic, feudal and complicated organization headed not by leaders but by satraps cannot be expected to meet the expectations of the twenty first century India, and therefore it is failing with amazing regularity in almost all fields of its operations, except perhaps taking good care of the bureaucratic and political masters. The ivory tower approach that is at the core of the managerial thought process ensures a total disconnect from the field and therefore witnesses emergence of ideas that appear good on paper and in discussions yet do not exactly matter in the long run. We invariably remain where we started.

The arrival of Modi on the national scene has aroused tremendous expectations in the masses and there is absolutely no doubt even in the minds of the worst of the skeptics that the nation is indeed in for a rapid improvement in the scenario. Yes that is what one man is capable of that a collective can never ensure. Unfortunately till the recent change of guard at the center, railways lacked that one man, both at the political as well as bureaucratic leadership levels.

Mammoth organizations that are operational in nature are meant to be led by a leadership that is proactive, decisive and honest besides having a vision for the future. Unfortunately the forever practiced strategy of fumbling in the dark in search of a miracle cure may be a remunerative exercise for the bureaucratic leadership but not for the teeming millions for whom the railways is the only means of going places. 

The rise of Feudalism and Sycophancy!

Feudal structures in 21^st century India are indeed the best mechanisms to keep the nation in the 19^th.  And yes they have helped mediocrity to rule the roost in both the political as well as bureaucratic arenas.

The Congress in the political and the Indian Railways in the bureaucratic arenas are perhaps the finest living examples of a cultural ethos rooted in a feudal and therefore sycophantic environment. Though there are many more examples in both arenas, but none as feudal and therefore as sycophantic as these two and their contribution in the national debacle is therefore unmatched and worthy of appreciation. 

Let us first look at the great Indian Railways, great because it was one of the biggest achievements of the british raj, an achievement that qualified to be cited as the economic lifeline of the nation ever since. Unfortunately when the british left and our home grown rulers took over, the feudal mindset of a ruler that regarded all others as slaves continued. The bureaucratic structure continued and rapidly grew to be more bureaucratic than ever, the reason being that the rulers soon realized that self perpetuation is more fun than serving the masses. And so the culture of saloons, personal attendants, big bungalows, gifts and graft blossomed with time. Work took a back seat, only to be handled by the supervisory staff who unfortunately were kept away from the loot that was always regarded as the prerogative of the officer cadre.  With passage of time newer tools like Mahila Samities and protocol emerged to further the cultural legacy of feudalism.  The mahila samities served as a convenient tool to massage the ego’s of the memsahibs in the garb of welfare. Reception parties for receiving and sending off senior officers moving on official and personal visits massaged ego’s at the cost of spine.

Yes it is true that the railways of today has a culture that encourages a very fine officer to convert to a leech by the time he occupies apex level positions – and we have perfect examples at present.

Congress also belongs to the same mold. Congressmen of various hues and mold have realized that sucking up to the first family is perhaps the best means to retain and enjoy power. And so we have odious comparisons to goddesses of someone who was not even born in this nation, all for the sake of holding on to power for personal gains, the nation can go to hell.

The arrival of Modi on the scene may make a difference to the nation. The only difference that one does not want to witness emerging is the culture of feudalism and sycophancy in the party with a difference.  

The Common(WG) Dilemma

Almost everyone in the country is now worried whether our infrastructure would be ready before the games. The state of affairs at Rajiv Chowk, that are visible to almost all are mainly responsible for this persistent nagging doubt in the minds of all patriotic indians. Recent reports on the disastrous state of affairs at some of our stadiums add to the dilemma. Why the work could'nt have been completed earlier, instead of extending it to the last moment is the question everyone is asking.

Well the answer to this question lies in our way of working. Way of working of the sarkari sector in our nation is the answer to this genuine question. Our way of working that is aptly designed for non-deliverance is responsible for this mess, placing a finger on any individual would not be right.

Ultimately it all boils down to our inept decision making and contractual processes that were designed for a feudal era and are utter failures in the present "fast & furious" era.

My take is that if rains do not lash Delhi area during this monsoons, the civic and sports infrastructure being built will get completed and shall also hold, but if Indra Bhagwan is generous with the monsoon, things may become difficult.