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Ratan Raj Bhandari, General Manager, South Eastern Railway, joined the Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineering in 1968. Prior to his present appointment, Bhandari held several important positions including those of General Manager RITES; Chief Personnel Manager, South Eastern Railway; Chief Mechanical Engineer, Southern Railway; and Secretary, Railway Board. A prolific writer, he has written several critically acclaimed books on the railways and takes keen interest in the railways' history. Among his colleagues, he is popularly known as "Chief Memory Officer" of the Indian Railways. Bhandari spoke to Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay about the activities of the SER, its strengths and weaknesses, and its current and future projects.
Excerpts from the interview:
Your logo says "Better Railway". In what way is it better?
We have been the best railway for the past 50 years. Our freight loading and net profit have always been the highest. But what can be better than the best? The reason why we have settled for "Better" is because our railway is competing with itself and every year we are doing better than we did the previous year. The undivided South Eastern Railway used to carry 40 per cent of the total rail traffic. Even after the division on April 1, 2003, we together still maintain that figure. By ourselves we carry around 12 per cent on just 2,400 km of track, which is only 4 per cent of the total rail length in the country.
Our profitability is also very high - approximately 20 per cent of our gross revenue. Our gross earnings is around Rs.3,500 crores and we make a profit of around Rs.700 crores.
What are your thrust areas?
Our main thrust area is safety. In the current year, thankfully, our safety record is the best. We have had only three consequential train accidents as against seven last year. We have to bring it down further.
Our second thrust area is freight loading. For the past four years, the rate of growth has been 7-8 per cent per annum. We are maintaining it without major infrastructural additions. In 2001-02 we loaded 58.3 million tonnes (apportioned figure); this increased to 63.07 million tonnes (apportioned figure) the following year. In 2003-04 it was 69.15 million tonnes and this year we expect it to be 73 million tonnes. But in spite of that, we are not able to satisfy all our customers. So we plan to increase our productivity by 6-7 per cent more per annum through better planning - better utilisation of locomotives, wagons and tracks - and of course by motivating the staff to give their best.
Now, to accomplish all this we also have to satisfy our employees. My immediate goal for them is to provide housing for each and every person who wants it. Of the employees numbering about a lakh, around 70 per cent look for railway quarters. I want it to be available to each and every one of them. Already 98 per cent of them have got their own quarters. We have also made the railway hospital fully air-conditioned.
Tell us something about some of your current projects.
Just a few months ago we commissioned the Tamluk-Digha line and the Howrah-Amta line for passenger service. At present we have four major projects on hand. We are working on the gauge conversion of the Ranchi-Lohadanga section, which once completed will be extended to Tori, which will give a boost to aluminium-bauxite traffic and also satisfy passengers in the region. Second is the Bankura-Damodar River Railway gauge conversion. This will connect the south eastern line with the heart of West Bengal and ultimately with the main line of Eastern Railway. This will also help a large number of people in the region. The third is the Rupsa-Bangriposi line in Orissa, which after gauge conversion will benefit the people of the State. The fourth is the doubling of the Panskura-Rajgoda line. This small stretch after doubling will help in moving our freight traffic to Haldia port. These projects should be operational in six months.
What about future projects?
We have made a plan for increasing infrastructure facilities in the iron ore loading area in Chakragarhpur division. It includes setting up a third line between Tatanagar and Rourkela. The project is yet to be sanctioned. We have made a request to the Railway Board, but it is yet to be finalised.
The other project we are working on is a self-driven project, which is making this railway `six sigma' safe. This is a new terminology for assessing safety. Six sigma means for one million train movements, the number of accidents is less than 3.5. On my railway, I have about 300,000 rail movements a year. Six sigma quality means that the rate of accidents in my railway should be less than one a year. This year we have had three, which is the best figure in the Indian Railways; but that should be reduced to at the most one. Perfection would be if it were zero, but that is not possible, because we cannot control certain things like natural calamities. But a six sigma level of quality is the closest one can get to perfection.
Also, because of the boom in the iron and steel industry, I have a very large number of customers whose needs I cannot serve owing to obvious constraints. Our growth of 6-7 per cent is not good enough; what we ideally need is 15-20 per cent growth. Increasing infrastructure is one way of doing that; the other is improving productivity. We are taking steps to ensure both.
Have you identified some areas that need improvement?
As I have mentioned earlier, the present market demands that we increase our traffic by 15-20 per cent. With our limitations, we are able to do only 6-10 per cent. That is our problem.
Another thing is that we have to be more open in our management and convince our people that they can come to us with their problems. This, of course, has to do with our mindset. Let me give you an example. Every day at 6 a.m. I visit the two residential colonies of the workers for one hour. I must be saying hello to at least 200-300 people then, but only when they start coming to me and saying hello will I know we are making progress in changing an age-old mindset for the better. It will take some time, but it will happen, I am sure.
We should also try to keep an open mind all the time. I might have doubts on a particular issue or the manner in which something is done and I am open to suggestions. At the management level we take opinions from everyone. That way, I don't think there is any major weakness in our railway, except that with our limited infrastructure, our growth rate does not quite match the market demand.
Tell us something about the SER's social commitments.
Our railway, with nearly one lakh employees is by itself a major society. If we include their families, then it is around five lakhs - which is more or less the population of a medium-sized town. I have not ventured beyond these five lakhs, because it would then be too much to handle, and I would not be able to look after our own.
As for our own, I like to ensure that they get their settlement dues, salaries, and so on, on time. They should be trained for sharing higher responsibilities so that when it is time for their promotion, they do not miss it. It is essential that our employees and their families feel important in the organisation. I continuously try to motivate them and instil in them a sense of belonging - that they are an integral part of the organisation and on them rests the future of the organisation. The success of the SER is really their success, because it is a result of their dedication and hard work.
Another important thing that I would like to mention in this context is that in our way it is not just the employee who works. His entire family contributes directly or indirectly. Every railwayman's wife is also a part of the railway family. Their women's welfare organisation, called the South Eastern Railway Women's Welfare Organisation, takes care of the weaker sections of society. They take care of the aged and the helpless, and mentally and physically handicapped children. During the tsunami disaster, they mobilised funds and relief materials. We have also set up many schools for railway children, which are also open to those living in the vicinity.
Where do you see the SER 20 years from now?
I see it emerging as a vibrant, dynamic, flexible organisation with a leaner structure. At present our employee strength is around one lakh. Twenty years from now I foresee our railway giving three times the output with a lower number of people. We are moving rapidly towards a market-driven economy, and the SER has to compete in that situation.
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