Letters: 'Mission' mode for railways

Apropos the editorial "On the right track" (June 23), mere institutional reforms in its accounting system or corporatisation will hardly do the trick for the Indian Railways.

What is more urgent is for Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda to accord the highest priority to moving freight, its main breadwinner, and refrain from making any populist announcements of starting new trains, un-remunerative projects in the garb of socially desirable investment, and other sundry commitments that may get him brownie points, but will not help the railways' financial recovery. While starting to earn enough to pay for its growth, the railways must, at the same time, make an urgent move to cut costs. By adopting a "mission" mode to improve its labour productivity - inducting new labour-saving devices, technologies, mechanisation and so on - by at least 10 per cent every year, it could prune staff strength from the current 1.4 million, to just under one million in the next five years. After all, staff wages account for a major chunk of its expenditure - over 50 per cent of its annual budget.

R C Acharya New Delhi

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