Rail Analysis India Dec Edition 2017 Digital Magazine | Page 48
Article | 47
48 | Article
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Indian Railways holds special conclave on “Sampark,
Samanvay, Samvad” to discuss and deliberate
“Vision for New Railway – New India 2022”
T
he Ministry of Railways conducted a
brainstorming conclave titled “Sampark,
Samanvay, Samvad” to discuss and
deliberate “Vision for New Railway – New
India 2022”. The conclave was attended
by the Minister of Railways and Coal, Shri
Piyush Goyal, the Minister of State for Railways, Shri
Rajen Gohain, and more than 250 senior members of
Indian Railways from across the country.
encouraged to give their inputs and bring forth ground
realities and potential impediments to implementation of
new policies and reforms.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Piyush Goyal motivated
Railway employees to think out of the box to enable game
changing reforms and bring about transformational results.
He emphasised on the need to gear up Railways for New
India by 2022 and his vision of New Railways 2022, which
would ensure speed, safety and service for consumers.
The high level conclave focused on transforming Indian
Railways to meet Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s
vision of ‘New India’ by 2022. This was in continuation to
previous conclave, Rail Vikas Shivir in November 2016
during the tenure of the Minister of Commerce and Industry
Shri Suresh Prabhu. He laid out 10 principles, which have helped in delivering
results earlier in making India a coal surplus nation as well
as in the rapid electrification of around 18,500 villages
including in the remotest corners of the country. These
principles include
Today’s conclave was designed to break silos (sampark),
improve co-ordination (samanvay) and find solutions
(samvad) to the critical issues facing Indian Railways.
Free and frank discussions were held, and all officers were •
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Partnership with all stakeholders,
Decisive leadership,
Outcome oriented action,
Root cause analysis),
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Rule of law and transparency,
Prioritisation of issues,
Time bound execution and fast dispute resolution,
Innovative financing,
focus, and
Accountability and close monitoring.
He stressed how time bound execution would lead
to meeting of cost targets and improve performance.
Contributing to the discussions Shri Goyal emphasised
that there was no scarcity of resources for good ideas. He
mentioned the need to scale up good projects avoiding the
time lag and delay caused by extensive pilot programmes
without any further implementation.
Guest speaker, Shri Sonam Wangchuk, renowned
educationist, scientist and innovator, who was also the
inspiration for the popular “Three Idiots” film, spoke to the
audience about his personal story of facing challenges
and innovating in the face of adversity. His advice to have
simple solutions to complex problems struck a chord, and
was widely appreciated. He felt that in the face of climate
change, Indian Railways is a luxurious way to save the
planet.
The focus of the presentations was to transform railways
to serve the passengers and customers. Some of the
topics covered included structural, process and cultural
reforms to ensure highest standards of safety, punctuality
and passenger comfort; improving the capacity and speed
of trains; dynamic pricing including discounts in off peak
seasons; increasing freight modal share; and improving
procurement to bring transparency, accountability and
speed in order to reduce time and cost. Discussions were
also held on how to boost the morale of the about 14 lakh
railway employees in order to improve productivity as well
improve their focus on consumers.
A digital chat room, which was open to all, allowed
everyone to give suggestions, ideas and feedback on the
various presentations.
The various subjects discussed in the conference included-
Transforming IR through Safety & Punctuality –Structural
process & cultural reforms, Transforming IR through
Passenger Comfort & Aesthetics- Structural processes &
cultural reforms, Strategis for imcresing carrying capacity
& speed of trains, Introducing dynamic pricing- Premium
& Discount, Increasing freight modal share, Streamlining
procurement to reduce time & cost and Boosting morale &
happiness of employees.