Vision 2020 - Transportation Research Group of India

6.6 ENRICHING HUMAN CAPITAL
Government of India
Ministry of Railways
(Railway Board)
As a Government organization, we are proud of the 1.4 million committed and dedicated employees of
Railways. They constitute our strength as we embark on the challenges of Vision 2020. Our vision is to
train, motivate and equip each and every member of the Railway family to reach his or her unique and full
potential. The training must cover not only the hard skills but also soft skills as well - hospitability, humane-ness,
humility and people-friendly service approach. In order to do so, we have to benchmark ourselves to global
standards in training befitting one of the world's largest railway networks. Railways have a number of training
institutions. Not only these would be upgraded and expanded but a number of new training institutions will also be
set up.
Indian Railway has been a model employer and over the years has developed exemplary systems of participative
management and a Permanent Negotiating Machinery (PNM) for a continuous dialogue with the employees.
These systems would be strengthened.
7. INVESTMENT FOR GROWTH
It has been tentatively assessed that 64% of the investment of roughly Rs.14,00,000 crore needed for
augmentation of capacity, upgradation and modernization of Railways in the next 10 years could be
mobilized by Railways through surpluses from high growth in freight and passenger traffic, supported by
prudent borrowing and use of PPP initiatives. PPP can be used to establish win-win partnership with private
sector in a number of areas such as developing world class stations, setting up of rolling stock
manufacturing units, logistics hubs, Kisan Vision projects, high-speed corridors, expansion and
management of the extensive network of Optical Fibre Cables (OFCs) and big infrastructure projects like
new lines and Dedicated Freight Corridors.
Even then, it is obvious that the cost of completing this massive expansion and modernization of the railway
system cannot be borne by Indian Railways alone. Internal and extra budgetary resources will simply not be
adequate to finance the Vision. There is thus a need for Government to set up an Accelerated Rail
Development Fund (ARDF) to finance the remaining 36% to the tune of Rs. 5 lakh crore to be spent over
the next 10 years. An amount of roughly Rs. 100,000 crore would need to be set aside from the ARDF to
clear the pending backlog of socially desirable, New Line and Gauge Conversion projects as a one-time
grant for the Government. Higher levels of budgetary disbursement from this Fund in the initial years would
ensure that infrastructure is built quickly to support growth.
8.
The above, however, is a tentative assessment and the details have to be worked out. A Committee of
Experts drawn from various disciplines such as economics, management, finance, engineering and project
management would go into the issues of determination of the investment levels required and the
mechanism for financing and implementing the Vision, including methods of funding socially desirable
projects and action plans for the immediate short-term and the long-term.
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