As part of its exercise for the merger of railway services and restructuring of the railway board, the Center has finalized the work assignment of its Restructured railway board, with the President and CEO in charge of key divisions, including the security, human resources, security and infrastructure portfolios.
According to a rail board order reviewed by the Hindustan Times, the Center has also finalized the Box Control Authorities (CCA) for existing rail services before its unified Indian Railway Management Service box goes live.
In December 2019, the Union Cabinet, in a major move to reform the railway board of the 150-year-old Railways of India, approved to restructure the main body of the Indian Railways by reducing its strength to the half and unifying its eight rail services into a central service called the Indian Railway Management Service. The eight services being merged are: traffic, accounting, personnel, engineering, warehouses, electrical engineering, signal engineering, and mechanical engineering.
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As the first director of operations of the national airline, the chairman of the railway board will be the cadre control officer responsible for human resources (HR), assisted by a DG (HR). The other portfolios, which have a global effect on the proper functioning of the railways and their immediate modernization plans and which have been entrusted to the CEO, include; HR, safety, health, planning, infrastructure, surveillance, efficiency and investigation, public relations, assets, secretarial branches, transformation cell and ‘corporate coordination’.
The Cabinet Appointments Committee (ACC) earlier this month formally approved the restructuring of the Board of Railways and approved the appointment of VK Yadav, the current Chairman of the Board of Railways, as its first CEO.
With the new reorganization, three top-level positions have been ceded: Member (Personnel), Member (Engineering) and Member (Materials Management) in the Railway Board and the Member position (Rolling Stock) has been used for the creation from the position of Director General (HR) to the apex degree according to the Cabinet Decision, ACC said.
The Railway Board is the highest body of the Indian Railways which reports to Parliament through the Ministry of Railways. It will now be made up of four members and a president. It will be headed by the president, who will also act as “Chief Executive Officer (CEO)” along with four members responsible for Infrastructure, Operations and Business Development, Rolling Stock and Finance respectively.
Previously, the board was divided vertically between the services, and each service had its own member. The president was the first among equals in which the members were responsible for their own department and cadre. The members had autonomous powers and did not need to ask the president for permission to make key decisions, such as the transfer and dispatch of their service personnel.
According to the rail board order issued Tuesday, the other board members, including member (Infrastructure), were assigned work related to civil engineering, bridges, signaling and telecommunications, land and services, station development and railway electrification. Member, Traction and Rolling Stock (TRS)), the Railway Board will be in charge of the production units, mechanical workshops, coaches, train sets, maintenance of coach equipment, among other things. Member, Operations and Commercial Development (O&BD), will be responsible for the transportation of traffic, training, tourism and commercial catering, non-tariff income and marketing and commercial development. The Finance member will be in charge of all accounts and income.
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