Journey Of Reform & Leadership
During 28 years of railway service, held many important assignments handling train operation, passenger services and railway revenue. Besides performing routine duties excellently, my major contribution lies in use of most ‘ Innovative methods’ and ‘ Out of the box solutions ‘ to improve quality of service, railway revenue and overall working of railways In this field, I have been miles ahead of any other officer in railways. It is said that, “ what Captain j p Singh thinks today, railway does it 20 years later”. Out of numerous examples I would like to cite only one. Recently, hon’ble Minister of Railways have announced that railway will hand over 28 stations for maintenance by private parties under ppp. As the copy of the press report reveals, I had already done this work way back in 1994-95, 25 years ago.
What I would like to emphasise that I have always been a thinking officer. My thinking used to start where others’ used to end. My initiatives in cleanliness, construction of world class toilets under PPP, ticketing and earning are shining example of innovation and out of the box thinking. All have been found beneficial, hence, adopted as policy by Railway Board and implemented all over the country. In recognition of these pioneering works, I was conferred “National Award for Excellence in Work” for overall outstanding performance, highest award given to a railway officer.
Introduced many innovations and system improvement measures in practical working. Although the list is long, a few are mentioned here:
Building whole efficiency of cleanliness and sanitation in Railways
All the policies, procedures and systems related with cleanliness and sanitation, presently followed in Indian Railways, without an exception, have been initiated by me. In turn, all these policies and practices have been adopted first, by other government departments, undertakings and later by private sector establishments with tremendous success, thus contributing substantially to the success of Swachh Bharat Mission launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister. Most of these measures were initiated by me in 2003-04 while working as Senior Divisional commercial Manager of Delhi division, the most important and the largest division of Indian Railways. A few of the initiatives are listed here:
- Outsourcing of work of cleanliness to private entrepreneurs by deploying private labour where thousand are employed today.
- Introduction of Mechanized Cleaning using modern machines.
- Introduction of system of Rag picking.
- Construction of World class Pay and Use toilets.
- In 2004-05 twenty-four Deluxe Pay and Use toilet complexes were constructed at New Delhi, Delhi, and Nizamuddin railway stations under PPP mode, providing world class toilets facilities to passengers, earning crores of rupee for railways, creating better ambience at stations and crating large number of jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities.
- Making of the most comprehensive policy on cleanliness which is still the basic document on the subject.
- Making of the model policy for construction of toilets on PPP basis. Rated as one of the best policies for clarity, simplicity and ease of implementation.
These measures have saved hundreds of crore rupees to railways creating thousands of employment and hundreds of entrepreneurial opportunities all over India.
A successful experiment at Hazrat Nizamuddin station: First "PPP" in Railways. Ahead of time
Hon’ble Minister for Railways has announced outsourcing of maintenance of forty railway stations by private parties. This work was done by me way back in 1994-95. Under the plan a private agency was appointed, through open tender, under PPP mode, to maintain Nizamuddin railway station and provide world class amenities to passengers. Agency was also paying license fee to railways against advertisement rights. Proved very successful, enhanced the ambience of station giving it a much better look. Highly appreciated, hailed as great initiative.
Beautification of New Delhi station. A marvel of Innovation
One of the the most innovative ideas was a beautification project implemented under “PPP” towards Paharganj side of New Delhi station. Since ages the entrance of this most important station of country remained unattended, full of filth and foul stench, Awarded through open tender system, the contractor had provided two beautiful world class toilets and had beautified the area by placing planters and fixing marbles and granites on surrounding walls and floor, all under his regular maintenance. He was also paying an annual license fee of Rs. 17 lakh in lieu of advertising rights on toilets.
But tragically, this highly beneficial project was allowed to lapse without further extension or a new contract awarded. A visit to Paharganj side of New Delhi station tells the painful story of this project even today in form of ruins of abandoned toilets and remnants of beautiful black granite on walls. It also reflects railways’ callous and criminal attitude towards the important matters of earning and quality of service to passengers.
Tackling Touts: Eliminating Black Marketing of Railway Tickets
Not long-ago railway ticketing was notorious for black marketing where touts would corner all the tickets to sell at premium to needy passengers in holiday season. While working as Chief Commercial Manager, Northern Railway I took effective measures to eliminate the menace of touting of railway tickets. Measures included:
- Introducing system of making it mandatory for every passenger to carry proof of identity in train to prevent booking of fake tickets on fictitious names by touts. It proved as the most innovative and effective measure against black marketing and menace of touting.
- Installation of CCTV and Jammers in reservation and booking offices. Blocking of booking by agents during prime time.
- Introducing first- cum, first- served system.
- Introducing system of taking mobile number of passengers for identification.
These highly innovative measures, taken first time by me, have cleanse the railway ticketing system of the touts making plenty of tickets available for genuine passengers. As a result, the railway ticketing system, once notorious for black marketing, has become touting free now.
E-ticket to differently abled persons. A humane innovation
Earlier, it was not possible for Divyangs to get e-ticket issued sitting at home like other normal passengers. They had to come, compulsorily, to a reservation office to procure their tickets as their handicap certificates needed to be verified physically to avoid frauds. Realizing their difficulties, I devised a system wherein after one time verification all their details were fed in railway data system and a serially numbered card was issued whereby they could procure e-tickets from comforts of their homes by just entering their card numbers. This highly creative innovation has helped Divyangs immensely enabling them to buy tickets without any hassles, simultaneously eliminating chances of fraud and loss to railways.
Rounding off of passenger fares in multiples of Rupees "Five"
Earlier ordinary class farse used to be in very odd figures like 39,199,203, 147 and so on causing great inconvenience for both booking clerks and passengers as both would find it difficult to find exact change, thus leading to fight and complaints. With the help of Railway board, and after a lot of persuasion I got a system put in place where, now, these fares are fixed and charged only in multiples of rupees five. It has come as a great help for both
passengers and booking clerks.
Doing away with nuisance of system of Annual Maintenance Contracts
Earlier finalization of Annual Maintenance Contracts (AMC) were a great nuisance, source of corruption and cause for poor maintenance of equipment. It was because equipment’s were purchased with only one year warranty necessitating for AMC for the remaining period of life of equipment. Working as Chief Commercial Manager, Northern railway introduced the system of procurement of equipment with a warranty covering their full codal life, thus eliminating the need for having AMCs altogether. After some resistance this system was implemented and now being followed everywhere. It has helped railways save considerable resources and improving quality of maintenance of equipment considerably.
Computerization of system of parcel booking and loading.
Starting in 2004-05, I was first to use computers for the booking of parcels at New Delhi followed by Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin, Later inventory and loading system of parcels was also computerized with great benefit to both railways and customers.
Renovation of reservation counters at IRCA of the world class level and building
Renovation of reservation counters at IRCA of the world class level and building of office accommodation for CAO/PIS and CAO/PTS without any external support. This work is an epitome of innovation as no allocation of funds was made by railway authorities for these essential works.
The Innovator
Introduction of Unipole
This innovation, using only one pole, instead of two pole hoardings, for displaying advertisements, has completely transformed the style of display of outdoor advertising all over. Inspired by a statue of Charles de Gaulle, former French President, in Paris, the unipoles were first conceived, designed and installed by me in Delhi area for increasing railway revenue. Soon, it caught the attention of media professionals and today unipoles are a common sight in outdoor publicity universally. It is my gift to the world.
Also introduced, as a first, other new medias like Bridge Panels, Electronic Display Boards and Bridge Screens for the display of advertisements. These are common sight every where now.
Was first to start advertisements on the back of railway reservation tickets in 1993-94.
Initiated the only successful high value commercial publicity contract of Indian Railways, earning the highest amount so far. Still a record.
It’s a field where many private sector, big players and professionals look up to me for new ideas and the consultants appointed by Railway Board still seek my opinion in this matter.
Vision Document: Indian Railways (2015-25). A Decade Of Growth and Development
On the basis of knowledge and experience gained from closely observing the working of these stations, trains and discussions held with officials managing them, I wrote a comprehensive paper entitled “Vision document: Indian Railways (2015-25). A decade of Growth And Development”, first by any individual railway officer. The document, contains in brief, detail of challenges facing railways and most innovative, practical and effective solutions thereof. It is worth noting that most of the measures taken by railways after 2014, for improvements in passenger services and earning, have been taken straight from this document.