Who will bell this white elephant?

The biggest white elephant that we have in India is our Railways. The largest network employs a mind boggling 13.34 lakh people of which 17,100 are officers, including 2600 doctors. Its wage bill for 2014 stood at a staggering Rs.76,242 crore. Manpower costs with pension payouts comprises 50% of the entire cost structure of Indian Railways.

Thus when the Railway minister, Suresh Prabhu is looking at getting the Indian Railways back on track, he is sure to come across the need to reduce manpower and reduce the wage bill. Mr.Prabhu has hired a consultant for the first time ever – Deloitte is currently studying the way the behemoth functions, right from zonal to divisional level and is expected to come up with a plan to help rationalize manpower. Deloitte is expected to submit its report before end of FY16.

Over the past few years, though it has managed to bring down the employee count from 18 lakh to around 13.5 lakh now, it bring it down further, it will require mechanization and that happen only if revenue comes in. How will revenue come in? Raise fares and spend more on getting new machines and spares. It is shocking to know that currently only 7 paise of every one rupee earned goes to the Railways for maintenance and buying new machines and materials. How can it sustain like that? Obviously, that explains the state of the Railways. It has simply become unfeasible to get this mammoth network to function seamlessly.

The only worry here – hope the employees of the Indian Railways do not go on a strike and bring the nation to its knees when downsizing is suggested.