CASE STUDY 2 INDIAN RAILWAYS: CHANGING THE TIMES AND CHANGING WITH THE TIMES

Railways worldwide have been synonymous with development; in fact, they are labeled as a harbinger of change. The steam engine, which powered the first rail coach, brought about the industrial revolution. The advent of railways opened the world, inland travel became possible and the world graduated from the agrarian economy to the industrialized economy. The first rail line in the world was the Stockton and Darlington in UK in 1825 and reached India in 1853 when the first track from Baribunder to Thane was opened. The grand occasion was rightly marked by a 21 gun salute and India has never been the same thereafter. The Britishers built a network of 58000 kilometers primarily for developing the hinterland and transporting agricultural produce and minerals. The network united the country, and the people of the country woke up to the concept of one India. PostIndependence, the railways symbolized the Nehruvian mix of development and Social Welfare. Railways became the backbone of the public sector led industrialization and took development to the remotest corners of the country and were seen more as a means of generating employment than revenues. The Indian railways finally responded to the needs of its customers. The first visible signs were the introduction of Rajdhani brand of express trains and introduction of AC-2 tier and AC-3 tier coaches in trains and then came Passenger Reservation System. Railways sensed that business travel was increasing in the country and introduced Shatabdi Express to mark birth centenary of Nehru. Also, narrow gauges were converted into high-speed broad gauge. Railways went in for mass computerization and focus was on internal efficiencies. In the current century the railways are into another orbit of growth and change with the Rail Vikas Yojana, innovative schemes like Rail Net and IRCTC and renewed focus on safety. HISTORY OF INDIAN RAILWAYS George Stephenson, father of the railways, set in motion a great revolution and railways in its first organized form were born. The first train run in India took place on April 16th,

1853, when a train with 14 railway carriages and 400 guests left Bombays Bori Bunder for Thane, to a 21-gun salute send-off. The second locomotive to arrive in India was Falkland and the first passenger train steamed out of Howrah station for Hooghly, a distance of 24 miles, on 15th August 1854. In the south, the first line was opened on 1st July, 1856 by the Madras Railway Company. In the north, a length of 119 miles of line was laid from Allahabad to Kanpur on 3rd March, 1859.The Indian Railways-the second largest railway system in the world-today has over 62,300 km of track laid between 7,000 stations and a strength of over 11,000 locomotives. ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE IN INDIAN RAILWAYS An organization can undergo both planned and unplanned changes. Planned changes can be of two types: a) First order change: Linear and continuous changes b) Second order change: Multidimensional, multilevel, discontinuous, radical change involving reframing of assumptions about the organization and the world in which it operates. The planned changes which took place in case of Indian Railways are as follows. Some of the first order changes include doubling of railway routes, phasing out of steam engines, replacing diesel engines with electric engines etc and some of the second order changes include usage of IT in railways, Calcutta Metro Rail, expansion of Railway Zones from nine to sixteen. The two most important second-order changes are: y PRS and RAILNET y Expansion of Railway Zones PRS Among the second-order changes, which have happened, PRS is the most radical. The stimulus for the change can be identified in different facets of Indian Railways. Some of them are: y Process Complexities-complex method of calculating fare, difference in categories of trains operating, large number of reservations per day etc. y Technological factors- availability of budget for IT infrastructure and availability of technological knowledge base.

y Competition-competition from road transport and airways. y Customer Satisfaction- requirement of customer satisfaction. y World trends-massive restructuring in Japan, UK and China. As a result of these stimuli for change, the stand-alone VAX computer Systems was implemented at New Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai and Secunderabad. The Passenger Reservation System Software was given the Integrated Multi-train Passenger Reservation System (IMPRESS) and consisted of roughly 2,700 sub routines. Extensive training to use the infrastructure was given to the existing employees. Retraining was given, resulting in huge change in the skill sets of the existing workforce in the front-end applications. There was no political resistance to the implementation of PRS. The main resistance was organizational, in the form of protest from labour unions. The railways followed a two-pronged strategy to counter any labour related problems. They are: y PRS was implemented in as a pilot project to show its effectiveness and also to show that it would not result in any labour retrenchments. y It was also ensured that the front end staff were not replaced, but they were retraining was given to them. The change brought about had also to be stabilizing by providing constructive modifications as follows: y To improve the service levels further, by providing better access to customers. y Satellite terminals from five host computer systems were provided, thus allowing customers access to reservation databases. y A teleprinter interface to PRS called AUTOMEX, is also in place to enable those stations which are not connected by remote terminals, to access the reservation database. y Introduction of RAILNET, computer networking in the railways, which helps in the transfer of messages, files and e-mails between the important locations on Indian Railways. CREATION OF NEW ZONES The debate for creation of new zones started when the Railways Act(Amended) 1989 was passed. The H.C Sarin report was also given in 1985, which mentioned the possibility of forming four new zones. Years after that, Ram Vilas Paswan(then Railway Minister)

announced the creation of a brand new zone in his constituency, viz., Hajipur. Five more zones were created in quick succession with headquarters at Jabalpur, Jaipur, Allahabad, Bhubaneswar and Bangalore. The railways minister had appointed the Rakesh Mohan Committee to suggest organizational changes and make the railways more profitable. The recommendations put forward by the committee were included privatization of all railway services and not creating any new railway zone. The latter recommendation was rejected by the minister. The stimuli for change in the creation of new zones can be identified in terms of process complexities and socio-political factors. The process complexities include the management of railway by 9 railway zones, complexity of operation due to the huge workforce, shortage of quality manpower etc. The socio-political factors include regional identity associated with railways and the usage of rail ministry portfolio to grant political favors. In 1996, the cabinet decided to create six new zones, later agreeing to add one more. The zones created were Jaipur, Hajipur, Bhubaneswar, Allahabad, Bilaspur, Jabalpur and Hubli. There was displeasure against this cabinet decision from the Rakesh Mohan Committee, Federation of Railways Officers Association, Railway Employees Union and also from six retired Chairmen of the Railway Board. The Supreme Court of India in its landmark judgement had upheld the creation of seven new railway zones as legally and constitutionally valid and dismissed petitions challenging the decision of the Government. Finally, Railways need to move ahead in upgrading its services to world class levels by privatization which could be beneficial in locomotive and equipment manufacturing, catering and maintenance of services and even the core of function of running trains.