Indian Railways get Budget booster; Infra allocations lay the ground for privatisation
Privatise or perish seems to be the latest slogan, and perhaps, in this move to make any meaningful change, one of the first shots had already been fired a few years ago by doing away with a separate Railway Budget. With its details buried deep in the main budget, it also eliminated the need for the Railway Minister to play to the gallery in announcing new trains or some concession in tariff, etc.
Continuing to function as one of the numerous government departments—with its principal secretary being now called CEO (Chief Executive Officer) instead of CRB (Chairman, Railway Board) and assisted by a very much truncated Board—ultimately, the Railways is slated to function as a piece of vast transport infrastructure that the operators could also use to run their own passenger and freight trains.
Wisely, the overnight privatisation model of the British Railways, which proved to be an unmitigated disaster, has been avoided, and, instead, a gradual move towards inducting private players seems to be on the cards. Having a CEO instead of a CRB, answerable to the minister, is a welcome move to cut through the departmental ‘silos’, and a step towards greater accountability and efficiency in delivery of its stated goals.
The CEO—unlike the erstwhile CRB—is now where the buck stops, and, resultantly, is forced to carry his team along, howsoever disparate the individual views might be. Earlier, this onerous task used to be performed by the railway minister
