Organisational Restructuring of Indian Railways

Abstract

Strategic drift of Indian Railways is due to its stagnant track capacity, declining freight transport, project overrun, poor operating ratio, and, lack of autonomy. This paper proposes two constructs for IR to mitigate sectoral competition and augment investor credibility for the next decade. The first construct is a meta-competency framework to regain its core-competency out of its constituent skills. The second construct is the top-down approach by the Government in creating a radical unitary public sector organization amalgamating railways, highways and inland waterways under Surface Transport Ministry. Further, this paper is a guidance to create an ecosystem for foreign direct investment and corporate restructuring of select IR subsidiaries in the Ministry of Railways. Strategic architecture discourse is on prioritizing economic value over passenger business.