The railway restructuring committee headed by Bibek Debroy has recommended that the restructuring be carried out over seven years. But some committee members have favoured a faster pace for corporatisation, an official told BusinessLine .

The draft report, which has sought feedback from all stakeholders, also suggested that the Railway Board have two members from outside the railways, who can function like independent directors. “The presence of non-railway cadre officials will ensure dirty linen is not washed in public,” said the official.

The committee also said that the government should provide gross budgetary support to the Railways, while waiving dividend payment.

The dividend is implemented on the cumulative budgetary support extended to the Railways over the years and the payout each year is about 25-30 per cent of the budgetary support.

The committee has also recommended that suburban services be hived off to States. However, this would require changes in the Railway Act.

“All projects should be planned and evaluated before being shelved as the Railways has 70 per cent market share in the long-distance passenger segment,” said Subodh Jain, former Member-Engineering, Railway Board.

While terming the report “comprehensive”, Jain said it has the stamp of the Rakesh Mohan Committee report, which could not be implemented due to lack of political will.

Cadre merger The Debroy committee report recommends that eight railway services be merged with two cadres — technical services and logistics services.

“All services should be recruited at the 12th level instead of recruiting only the technical at 12{+t}{+h} and the logistics services through the UPSC route,” said Niraj Kumar, former Director General, Railway Staff College.

On appointing Board members and General Managers only if they have three years of service left, Kumar said: “Why should selected candidates not be appointed for three years, irrespective of age.”

Meanwhile, railway unions have opposed some of the recommendations of the committee, especially with regard to the faster pace of corporatisation. But they have welcomed some proposals including integration of IT infrastructure and reform of accounting structure.

Indian Railways is the country’s largest employer, with over one million people engaged with it directly and indirectly. Shivagopal Mishra, General Secretary, All India Railwaymen Federation, welcomed the draft report’s recommendation that all projects taken up before 2000 be re-evaluated and pursued only if they are feasible.

Railways have a large shelf of projects valued at over ₹5 lakh crore, the current value of which will be about ₹8-9 lakh crore.

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