Cabinet approves transformational organisational restructuring of Indian Railways

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday approved a transformational organisational restructuring of the Indian Railways which entails the unification of existing eight Group A services of the Railways into a Central service.

Under this, the existing eight Group A services of the Railways will be reorganised into a Central Service called Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS), according to a release by the PIB.

Apart from this, the re-organisation of Railway Board on functional lines headed by CRB with four members and some independent members and the renaming of the existing service of Indian Railway Medical Service (IRMS) as Indian Railway Health Service (IRHS) will also be done.

"Railways has an ambitious program to modernise and provide the highest standards of safety, speed, and services to the passengers with a proposed investment of Rs. 50 lakh crore over the next 12 years... To meet next level challenges and deal with various existing difficulties there was a need to take this step," the release read.

It also mentioned that the unification of services has been recommended by various committees in the past for reforming the Railways, including - the Prakash Tandon Committee (1994), and Sam Pitroda Committee (2012), among others.

The reform has been undertaken with the support and consensus of Railway officers which was taken at a two-day conference held in Delhi on December 7 and 8. Later, the "Railways Board held an extraordinary meeting of the Board during the conference on December 8 itself, and recommended a number of reforms including the ones mentioned."

As a result of these reforms, the Railway board will no longer be organised on departmental lines, as it will be replaced with a leaner structure organised on functional lines.