Centre pushes Railways to reform, merge RVNL & Ircon, Rail Tel & IRCTC

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18-Sep-21

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These proposals are part of a report on rationalisation of government bodies prepared by Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, after studying the structure and distribution of Railways ministry.The Cabinet Secretariat has asked the Ministry of Railways to act upon a series of recommendations including a merger of Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd into IRCON, of Rail Tel into IRCTC, and a takeover of Braithwaite & Co Ltd by RITES.
These proposals are part of a report on rationalisation of government bodies prepared by Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, after studying the structure and distribution of Railways ministry.The proposals are wide ranging, and not restricted to PSUs: bringing 94 schools run by Railways under the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghatan (KVS), upgrading 125 Railway Hospitals — most of them under-invested — through an institutional mechanism and opening these to the public at large. Wherever appropriate, it suggests a PPP (public-private partnership) model for schools and hospitals run by the Railways. This will help the organisation focus on its core competence of running and maintaining the railway service.
Ministry of Railways, Indian railways, irctc, irctc.co.in, Rail Vikas Nigam, Braithwaite, IRCTC, rationalisation of government, Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Advisor, india news, indian express,This will help the organisation focus on its core competence of running and maintaining the railway service. (File)The Cabinet Secretariat has asked the Ministry of Railways to act upon a series of recommendations including a merger of Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd into IRCON, of Rail Tel into IRCTC, and a takeover of Braithwaite & Co Ltd by RITES.
These proposals are part of a report on rationalisation of government bodies prepared by Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, after studying the structure and distribution of Railways ministry.
The proposals are wide ranging, and not restricted to PSUs: bringing 94 schools run by Railways under the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghatan (KVS), upgrading 125 Railway Hospitals — most of them under-invested — through an institutional mechanism and opening these to the public at large. Wherever appropriate, it suggests a PPP (public-private partnership) model for schools and hospitals run by the Railways. This will help the organisation focus on its core competence of running and maintaining the railway service.
In a recent note sent to the Railways, the Cabinet Secretariat has asked Suneet Sharma, Chairman and CEO, Railway Board, to update it on the actions taken on the recommendations in the first week of every month.When contacted, a senior Railway Ministry official told The Indian Express, the report had been handed over to them just a week ago. “It has now been sent to all key departments… all these require serious discussion with all members of the Railway Board,” said the official, who did not wish to be named.
On consolidation of PSUs, Sanyal’s report stated that both IRCON – a specialised infrastructure construction company, and RVNL which implements projects to create and augment rail infrastructure capacity on a fast-track basis, have similar business functions. Hence, it has said RVNL can be merged into IRCON. Highlighting the overlaps between Rail Tel, a large telecom infra provider through optic fibre networks along railway tracks, IRCTC, a mini ratna, whose core activity is internet ticketing, and CRIS, an autonomous society to develop software for passenger ticketing, freight invoicing, passenger train operations, etc, the report recommended that CRIS be wound up after handing over its work to IRCTC, and then Rail Tel be merged into IRCTC.