I did not mention about TrivediJi, as his tenure was very short and he did not get opportunity to perform. Being a qualified, forward looking and very logical person he took very bold & corrective steps in his solo Rly budget, which I Rlys very badly needed since several years. Unfortunately he inherited a stubborn boss of exactly opposite character who made him a scapegoat. Definitely he was the most unfortunate MoR IRlys ever had. He did the right thing, but friend, this saying always goes right -"Man proposes God disposes".
Still I think Prabhuji is doing the best possible for I.Rlys. One action PrabhuJi did, which elevates him to an ultimate class, which no present politician could ever belong to! He...
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delegated all the financial powers (tenders of several tens of thousands of crores! Every year) which earlier MoRs have grabbed much to the detriment of IRlys. He empowered the Rly Officials esp. GMs & DRMs who are actually managing the day to day planning, operation, maintenance, modernization & expansion activities of Indian Railways experts are the best persons to take decisions in the matter of tenders which are highly technical in nature.
He has given the Rly management, the much needed freedom to take quick & correct decisions in order to run the IRlys in the right direction. He has adequately empowered the Rly Management, now he has to be a tough task master, and get the maximum out of the Rly personnel. In fact this is his biggest challenge and all his sacrifice will go to vain, if Rly-men does not put in the efforts their minister is putting up and bring drastic improvement in their way of working. Improving the work behaviour of over 1.5 million Rly men is much more difficult to manage any private or multinational organization.
He has taken the right step in the day-1 i.e. depoliticisation of Indian Railways. I see him as a professionally qualified and task oriented “Lal Bahadur Shashtri” of present India. But In order to succeed in this endeavors, he will have to display characteristics (toughness) of “Sardar Patel” as well. It should not be difficult as he is lucky to have a solid inspiration in hand, i.e. today’s “Sardar Patel” as his boss.
Results have started trickling now. Today in IRly all the formalities to start a project are being completed in 6-8months of conception which earlier used to take 1.5 to 2 years. Rate of commissioning of new Rly tracks, Electrification has increased drastically. Here again, is a word of extreme caution, only the profitable projects with high rate of return need to be fast tracked and completed. If the financially bleeding ones are fasttracked, IRlys will be neck drowned in a sea of debt. i.e. patient in ICU will go into coma instead of coming out of ICU and eventually getting discharged from the hospital!
Indian Railways had been notorious for its slow trains, slow decisions, slow action but under the leadership of Prabhuji things are moving fast at jet speed and hopefully trains will also start running fast. He is driving hard the accounting reforms, which is essential for IRlys to turn around. He is the only MoR who has initiated steps to recapture traffic lost to road ways in a big way. We can hope that IRys can achieve new heights under his guidance and leadership.