Plea to Privatize the Indian railway

Some of my poor experiences in Indian Railway:

1. http://pulse.yahoo.com/_AP66EIMAGK4SXTWYY2527SYXZA/blog/articles/15118?listPage=index  ( Theft from my Suitcase)
2. http://pulse.yahoo.com/_AP66EIMAGK4SXTWYY2527SYXZA/blog/articles/15120?listPage=index  (Waitlisted Passenger in Indian Railway)
3. http://pritranjanjha2.blogspot.com/2010/12/travelling-from-lucknow-to-hosur.html
4. http://pritranjanjha2.blogspot.com/2010/12/travel-in-vsg-howrah-expamaravathi.html
5. http://pritranjanjha2.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-first-experience-in-mumbai-and.html
6. http://pritranjanjha2.blogspot.com/2010/12/travel-in-sabarmati-express-9166-17-04.html

Objectives of supporting the Privatization the Indian railway

1. To make the train journey safe and secure, so that there is no accidents, causalities, incidents of thefts and robbery, sabotage inside/outside the train and premises of railway property.

2. To respect and treat the passengers as “Customers”. (Prioritizing the satisfaction of the “external customers” more than that of the “Internal customers”)

3. To increase investments in the Indian railway.

4. To increase the efficiency of the Indian railway.

1) Better waitlist ticket management. Goal that there is no gap in Demand and Supply and thus no waitlisted passengers.

2) Providing better train network, based on the existing/perceived Demand and having one single gauge system, the broad gauge throughout the country.

3) Providing better facilities at the railway stations and premises.

4) To be punctual and “Just in time”. 

5. To break the monopoly in management of the Indian Railway, and give the customers the advantage of “competition” between the services of different players.

6. Delighting the customers by increasing their comfort and convenience.

7. To present the best thriftiness and low cost in management. 

8. To help the requirements of the “Migrating citizens”.

9. To make an egalitarian society.

10. To help the people who cannot afford to purchase the tickets. Empathizing even with the “without ticket passengers” and understanding and helping them.

11. To motivate the outside food vendors to get registered and form an organisation, so that they are able to serve the customers along with the registered IRCTC’s caterers. The outside vendors are good supplier of local fruits and vegetables. They also compete with the “authorized” caterers, thus keeping the prices of food under control. This also increases the opportunity of self employment.

12. To provide adult education in the railway, especially the lessons on Health, Hygiene, sanitation and cleanliness. For this the money will be taken from the ministry of Human resource.

13. To provide employment to the “beggars”, “transgenders” and other people who frequently travel in the train and likes to get registered them selves as unemployed and “without ticket”.

14. To help the old and sick people.

15.  To help the religious pilgrims and the registered sadhus/sanyasis/yogis/Naga Baba’s.

16. To bring out the advantage of private management in the railway, so that there are innovations and creativity in the management.

17. To make the people who reside near the railway infrastructure, such as railway lines and stations as share holders of railway.

18. To bring private human resource management in the Indian railway. Recruitment, Transfers and Removal from job will be easy, need based and without much formalities. 

19. To recruit guard cum care takers for each compartment- 1 near each gate-toilet. So that there is no sexual harassment, smoking, drinking liquor, consumption and sale of Gutakha, etc. inside the train. It will also be strictly seen that no one expresses his “sexual desires” by making erotic drawings and writing erotic-indecent comments in the toilets.

20. To prioritize the better services and welfare of customers more than the profit of the railway.

21. To help the marginal vendors especially that of “perishable” commodities to have access to the better markets.

22. To have zero tolerance to corruptions in the railway.  

23. To have mobile and laptop charging facility near all seats in all of the compartments.

24. To eliminate the concept of “general boggy” so that a seating facility is provided for each purchased ticket. 

25. To digitalize/computerize all the dealings inside the moving trains, so that there is perfect openness and transparency.

26. To include the facilities of alternate travel arrangement, if the railway has somehow failed in providing expected service.

27. To treat all customers as “equal” so that there is no “Very Important Person”. 

28. To make each train’s one route journey as the “Revenue Centre/Service Centre” and establish a manger for that “Revenue Centre/Service Centre”.

29. To plant trees along the railway tract.

Problems of Indian Railway: In the grip of “Unethical Ethics”.

1. The government has been “happy” in increasing the salary of their employees. “Good”, but the Railway will have to earn more profit!

2. No minister wants to take up the “blame” of increasing the ticket fare of general, sleeper and other economical classes.

3. Investment in developing the infrastructure and demand meeting capacity of Indian railway is poor.

4. The “cash inflow” is being maintained by “Tatkal” schemes, “Fines” for traveling in Sleeper class with negligence to the facility provided for the General class and making the “Counter booked Waitlisted ticket” holders to travel in difficulty, without increasing the carrying capacity/seating facility. 

5. In “Tatkal” tickets, the charges are more and there will be no benefits of the concessions. The passengers wanting to take advantage of the “Tatkal” ticket must be very active with ability to quickly book the ticket preferably the “e-ticket”. They should also have good internet facility, online bank account, Debit /Credit cards and enough money in their bank account.

6. The innovations in treating the passengers as “valuable customers”, empathizing with them, analyzing the customers in need of “special support”, reaching them, and giving special treatments to the “needy ones” are lacking.

7. The innovation in making alternate travel arrangements for those who needs to “anyhow” travel to their destination is lacking.

8. The railway minister does not want to take any decision which will embarrass the Employee/Trade Unions. Thus the benefits of the “external customers” are often compromised for the sake of the “Internal Customers”. 

9. The accidents associated with railway have been common. The Railway minister has been “kind” in giving jobs and compensations to the victims. This reduces the “funds for investment” and also the business opportunity of the Insurance industry.

10. The naxalites are the people who are quiet “hopeless” about their future. They also have Ego and also frustrations. They are in need of special “reach out” support. They are jealous about the increase in salary and facilities of the employees/servants in the “Organized sectors”. Afflicted by negativity they “enjoy” causing harm to the Railway.

11. The railway has huge property for which there is often blame that it is not properly managed by their “talented” “Babus”.

12. The Large Cap companies, affluent industrialists and the famous institutes (e.g. IIM) wants to get share in the “management” of railway, thus trying to “dilute” the importance/significance/authority of the high profile “Babus” and the Minister of Railway, which they resist. Thus the Indian Railway does not get benefit of the private funds/investments and the management skills in the private sectors.

It is very unfortunate that most often the Indian railway is unable to clear the waitlisted tickets, even when the tickets are booked in advance. It just shows that they don’t know the “Demand and Supply” and are weak in the trend analysis, organized just for the name sake, poor in logistics and supply chain management. It also reflects that they don’t understand the customer behaviors and don’t empathize with their customers.

If the government managed Indian Railway cannot meet Demand, it should leave the Business and allow the Private players to meet the Demand. 

Indian Railway should not operate by the bills passed in Parliament, but on the basis of Demand and Supply. Additions and removals of the bogies at different stations should be made easy by bringing innovations and creativity. There should be good stock of bogies and engines at the important stations.

Indian railway should consider all the Tickets booked even when there is no availability of births as "Tatkal". And attempts should be made to provide seating facility for such passengers.

When Tata, Maruti and Mahindra can strive hard to meet the needs of the economy and customers, why the railway often fails?

Railway should not grade its customers on the basis of “Air Conditioned, First class, Sleeper, Chair car, General” but on the basis of necessity.

The customers, who have to somehow reach their destination on time, will not mind traveling even in the General bogie, provided they don’t have to compete for space, struggle, tolerate the smokers and hold their toilet impulse-rather than going into the dirty toilets-sometimes even without water!.

Private Road Transport system at many places have even out competed the railways. People happily pay extra money to the bus operators to avoid uncertainties associated with railway (mainly confirmation of the wait listed tickets.) 

Many passengers does not like to travel in the A/C’s but they like to travel in clean, well maintained, well secured and peaceful compartments.

Who will oppose the Privatization of Indian Railway?

1) Trade unions, existing employees and their family members.

2) Narrow minded and myopic ministers/politicians.

3) Other vested interests. 

Approach and my imaginations

1. The private parties who give “chanda”/donations/bribe to the politicians, especially to fight elections should convince/force/lure the ministers to give the railway in the hands of private management.
2. Privatization should be gradual. The underutilized and mismanaged railway routes should be first privatized. 
3. The past records of unreserved and reserved tickets purchased, that remained waitlisted but not cancelled, that got cancelled due to different reasons, loss making routes, etc. will be studied in details and probabilities for the demand estimation will be established.
4. Each trip of a train will be one "Revenue/Service" Center. There will be a manager for that Center. It will be his/her responsibility to see that the objectives are met. His/her contact number will be displayed to the customers, so that they can seek his/her help.
5. Development of new bogies/ up gradation of existing bogie will be privatized so that the demand-supply gap is narrowed. To fill the demand supply gap, bogies will also be exported and imported. So there will be partnership with the international train bogie developers and operators.
6. Railway track management at different regions can be taken up by the different companies. Similarly different railway station management can be taken up by some company. It should be ensured that the local populations are made share holders in the development/management projects.
7. The company managing the railway tracks and stations will earn by charging the train operators and partly from the price paid by the customers for the tickets.
8. Enough seating facility will be provided for every one including the 'beggars', 'trans genders', 'small vendors', 'sadhus', poor student, 'the person who has lost his/her money', etc. They will be registered by the railways against their UID numbers.
9. The Customers who cannot afford to pay for the ticket but have some strong rational objective in traveling will be given ticket from the railway side, and the amount will be taken as bad debt/donation in the railway's account. If the same person travels more than few times on "mercy" he/she will be analyzed by the human resource experts of railway and given some trainings and job. Railway will also donate clothes to those "customers" who don't have proper/clean dress.
10. I will like to have only sleeper class or double decker chair car in my train. Let the people mingle, enjoy and adjust with the weather/climate given by the Nature.
11. Facilities like ATM, Cyber cafe, medical shops, cloth shop (for cold and warm seasons), fruit shops, small theater, library etc. will be available in my train.
12. Strict and “boring” Teachers/professors will be recruited to give ethical "lessons" to those making the train and toilets dirty, and causing losses to the railway and inconvenience to the fellow passengers. The money for this adult education will be taken from the ministry of human resource.
13. The guards cum caretakers recruited for each gate will have eight hours of job and will get out and take rest at the station which falls near to his/her end of duty, and than another person will take charge. I will prefer aged and educated people who are strict, honest but without ego. Transgenders can also be recruited for the job. They will have to make the records of passengers boarded, missing, behaviors of different customers, etc. which will be fed to the internet connected palm top provided to the care takers.
14. Manager of my train will provide television with DVD players to the passengers traveling in a large group for a purpose-say religious pilgrimage, tourism, etc.
15. I will have a "bathroom bogie" with enough water for the Ayappa Swami devotees. Instead of fire based Aarti, they will be requested to do Aarti by lighting the battery operated torch and perfume.
16. Bogie will be of different types, with flexibility, good look, etc. to meet different objectives. Double decker chair car can be used to move large number of customers. 
17. Ticket charges will have price little more than the "break even point" of the operation costs. The passengers who cannot afford this price will request in written to the railway manager, who will provide required concession, adding the loss to the balance sheet against the UID of the customer. Based on the requests for prices, costs and prices will be appropriately adjusted and also the business opportunity will be created from some of the "luxury" services provided inside the train.
18. All financial transaction will be open and transparent. Salaries of my managers will be reasonable and based on the performance and income of the railway. I will like to operate in low cost economy so that an egalitarian society is created. Inflation management will be the headache of the Government of India.
19. Toilets will be of Indian style, placed at elevation from the floor. No western style toilet will be provided. In each toilet, there will be toilet cleaner chemical and brush. The customers will have to see that they take personal interest in cleaning the toilets after use, so that it is ready for the next person. There will be a small mug and soap for maintaining hygiene and cleanliness and so that the toilet user disinfects their hands after using it for toilet. The railway will also supply rubber/plastic slipper, on a small charge for going to the toilet.
20. Installing urinals in the toilet. The urinals will be such that the urine does not sprinkle out on the body or feet. For this there can be provision for adjusting the height of the urinal according the height of the user. There will be water tap attached to the urinal and liquid soap bottle near the urinal. The users will have to see that the urinal is cleaned for the use of the other person.
21. The railway will have efficiently networked customer care department which will monitor to ensure the convenience of the customers. They will make individualized and personalized phone call or send SMS to the customers to make them alert about their train timings, best time to be on the station, platform on which the train will be standing, coach position on the station, other mode of transport available to reach their destination, in the new city, where they can stay at their budget level, places of interest, medical facilities, risks, etc. This will be partly “free” and partly charged service.
22. The Care takers will give personalized services to the passengers, like alerting them before the arrival of the station at which they want to get down.
23. They will also be attending the helpless people, to create a role model homely environment inside the train.
24. It will be possible to modify/cancel the electronic tickets/mobile booked tickets on the ticket counter available at the stations. Facilities of “Break of Journey”, “Onward” journey, “Circular journey” will be available on the electronic and mobile tickets. The SMS sent on mobile by Railway for a booked ticket can also be used instead of the tickets in Print form. A person can get printed form of his/her electronic/mobile booked ticket in the station and also inside the train, for a very small extra charge above the cost of printing and paper.
25. The Railway will empathize and provide proper accommodation to even those “Customers” who could not pay full fare for ticket, or buy proper ticket but boarded the train. But there name, address and UID number will be published on the website of Railway, with the total losses incurred due to them. But if they pay the money in later stage, they will be thanked and their name will be removed. The UID numbers will be linked to the customer’s bank account, and there will be provision for auto transfer of the due amount to the Railway’s account. Thus the Indian railway will start giving services on credit (interest free for some months or on varying interest based on person and situation.) along with bad debt/donations to the Poor and Pauper. Depending upon the situation of the customers, the credits can be debited on installments or in one lot.
26. Railway will provide free service to those who have lost their job and are in job gap and want to return to their native place.
27. There will be purified drinking water tap in the “Common Room bogie” of the train.
28. Many students who go to study in other states for many years (say 4-5), while returning back, may like to carry the purchased books, study notes, computers, musical instruments, clothes, valuable utensils etc. to their house. Railway will identify such students and help them to carry their books and study notes (most often have high weight, say more than 60 Kg.) back to their house at very concessional charges.
29. The prevailing facilities to the army personnel will continue.
30. Special concessions will be given to the registered groups of Agricultural Labors and their families, who move from one state to another for executing different farm operations like planting, harvesting, weeding, applying pesticides, irrigating etc.
31. The railway coaches will be frequently disinfected from mosquitoes, bed bugs, rats, etc.
32. Railway with tanker coaches will supply water for drinking and afforestation projects at the draught affected places. Similarly it will collect water from the flood affected regions to the draught affected ones.
33. Railway will respect and help the people who cannot “afford” to become the perfect “customer” but will be very strict against the people who are corrupt and hypocrite. It will make all attempts to help these people in correcting themselves. 

Failing to Privatize the Indian Railway

1) Made the automobile sector entrepreneurs to produce many cars, bus, etc, which increased the traffic jams, road accidents, pollutions and materialistic behavior of people

2) Increased the business opportunities of hotels and lodges, Road based transport providers, and aero plane operators. 
Hindi poem-General Compartment of Indian railway-1
Hindi poem-General Compartment of Indian railway-2
Hindi poem-General Compartment of Indian railway complete