Indian Railways Will Remove 25% Train Staff, Stops All New Hiring; Rs 60 Cr Of Dustbins Will Go

As per the reports, a letter has been sent by the Indian Railway Board to various departments, in which they are urging them to review orders, contracts, requirements of manpower also emphasizing in bringing down the fuel and energy consumptions to reduce the expenditures.

Why Would This Happen?

According to an IE report, the revenue is down by around 58 percent due to the COVID-19 nationwide lockdown.

In response, the national transporter is enforcing a slew of cost-cutting measures.

Below are cautious steps that Indian Railways is taking to cut the costs.

1. So far, every train has about 15 staff members from different departments to look after linen, cleaning as well as AC maintenance. But now, Indian railways are reducing that to around 11 employees by training them in multiple areas. This will help in cutting down the staff strength by at least 25 percent, according to a senior railway officer.

2. Most of the costs comes with the cancellation of replacement of dustbins in as many as 30,000 Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches which save up to around Rs 60 crore. So, instead of replacing dustbins in 30,000 LHB coaches, the Modern Coach Factory will take up only around 5,000 coaches at the cost of about 1.78 lakh, as per the report.

3. Apart from that, the Railway Board has put a freeze on the creation of new posts, as per the recent letter to all zonal railways. As the letter says, all the posts created in the last two years and still remain unoccupied have to be surrendered. 

4. Also, a special multitasking committee has been constituted at the Railway Board’s level to further review the staff that can be trained to do multiple tasks for their efficient utilization. 

5. The RPF personnel’s job overlaps with that of the ticketing staff of the commercial department, so, Indian Railways is reviewing this to work out if one can do the job of the other. 

6. Around 80 percent of ticket bookings now happen through online portals, so they are planning to redistribute these employees in other departments.

7. Indian Railways is now reviewing its cleaning contracts which spends around Rs 1,200 crore. The letter further advised the cleaning shifts to be reduced from three to two or one, considering the footfalls.

8. Further, to save up on fuel and energy consumption, the diesel locomotive will now only be operated with prior approval from the General Manager. Also, no spare parts for diesel locomotives will be procured and the ones that are beyond 30 years, will be scrapped.

Moreover, It seems that Indian Railways is working towards increasing its freight load with various policy interventions. 

Further, this includes a timetabled service of freight trains much on the lines of passenger train services to bring freight load that the railways have lost to the road.

Apart from these, Indian Railways is working towards increasing the speed of its goods wagons to 75 km per hour and has also recently allowed loading from multiple points for goods.