Newly-appointed Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani has promised to undertake a large-scale audit of rail systems, end corruption and VIP culture in the Indian Railways, even as safety concerns are back into focus after a spate of train accidents.
Taking charge on Thursday after demitting his role as the chairman and managing director (CMD) of Air India, Mr. Lohani told Rail Bhawan officials to communicate organisational goals with ground-level staff more effectively, in a maiden interaction with about 500 employees.
“These two accidents have caused a lot of concerns. We have to look at a large scale audit of systems in a simple way,” Mr. Lohani said in an almost hour-long speech to his new colleagues at Rail Bhawan.
“People think issuing a circular is enough for the message to reach the ground level. Field visits, which are extremely important, have come down…We have to ensure that officers spend time on the field. We have to practise management by walking around,” he said.
To hit the ground running, Mr. Lohani is expected to visit Old Delhi, New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin railway stations in the national capital to interact with track inspectors.
Mr. Lohani’s predecessor A.K. Mittal quit following two train derailments within a span of four days. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu offered to resign on Wednesday taking moral responsibility for the mishaps, but the Prime Minister asked Mr. Prabhu to wait.
“There has been talk about safety following recent train accidents. We all have to realise that safety in the railway system is extremely important,” he said, during his speech.
“There should be an overemphasised focus on safety. The management and the country are concerned about rail safety. This concern has to be known to the gangmen (who manually maintain railway tracks) and till the ground level which doesn’t happen,” Mr. Lohani said.
The Railway Board Chairman emphasised that the Indian Railways needed to effectively communicate safety expectations till the ground-level employees.
“We have to reach out to the ground-level staff. When I was in Air India, I used to meet 200-250 employees everyday…You are more important than trains and machines,” Mr. Lohani said amid thunderous applause from the employees.