Building Castles in the Air

This refers to your cover story on Railways ( Mission Impossible?, August 28). A well balanced review by the author. The hurdles in the administrative structure of the Railway Board, unproductive hierarchy, rickety recruitment system, labyrinth of inter-departmental procedures, formation of unviable divisions on political compulsions, and faulty administrative zones on regional parochialism are to be blamed for the Indian Railways’ sorry state of affairs. No railway minister so far has run trains for the betterment of the nation. They only cater to their states and constituencies, unmindful of the economically unsound demands. Abruptly changing its business model will certainly put the nation out of gear. The Chinese model is not a globally benchmarked one for straight adoption. Aping them without structural changes will derail the development of Indian Railways. Probably Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu builds castles in the air, while former minister Lalu Prasad finds flaws in every move of the government. The ultimate aim of governments of all hues is the well-being of the commoners, and on any count it cannot be discarded. It is only a fallacy that fare escalation will increase revenues and solve all railway problems. Misuse of free coupons and unfair passes to political class and retirees are never addressed appropriately. The software applications for ticketing and reservations are also not the best in class. All the zones must be reorganised to build a profitable model for Railways. It’s going to be a long haul for Prabhu, who is known to be a good administrator. Turning around the Railways is going to be his acid test. B. Rajasekaran, Bangalore