Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu has outlined 11 structural changes in the Indian Railways to make the elephant Bholu (Indian Railways' mascot) dance.

Prominent among them are restructuring the organisation by bringing in unified cadre and forming directorates having cross-functional teams. Also on the anvil is the setting up of a holding company for all Railway PSUs – a step which could further result in listing on the bourses as a part of the Centre’s divestment besides setting up a Railway Planning and Investment organisation.

A national rail plan has been envisaged to harmonise and integrate the rail network with other modes of transportation, besides the construction of a test track to cut short the cycle of introduction of new rolling stock (coaches, wagons and locomotives).

A special Railway Establishment for Strategic Technology and Holistic Advancement (SRESHTHA) – a niche railway research organisation and a special unit for Transportation Research and Analytics (SUTRA) with a dedicated, cross-functional data analytics team manned by professional analysts has been proposed.

Missions on increasing axle load to 25 tonnes, zero accidents, accounting reforms, capacity utilisation, among others, have been mooted.

IR has also identified other revenue generating streams such as advertising, station development, monetising data, land banks, overhauling the parcel business, and exports.

IR has set a target to earn Rs 4,000 crore through exports by 2020 and to liberalise the policy related to the parcel business.

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