Ratan Tata for incentive-based approach to address railways' problems

NEW DELHI: Chairing the first meeting of the ' Kayakalp Council' for Railways' revamp, noted industrialist Ratan Tata is today understood to have suggested an incentive- driven mechanism for employees resolving through innovative ideas problems faced by the public transporter.

At the meeting here which was attended by senior railway officials and railway union leaders, the Chairman Emeritus of the Tata Sons group also made it clear that all the stakeholders should be on the "same page" for the betterment of the railways.

"Tata said that the Council would work in close cooperation with everybody concerned and be on the same page for the betterment of Indian Railways and would not be in conflict with anybody as there is shared objective of making the Railways better," an official release said.

Tata also discussed about identifying global benchmarks both for operations and maintenance.

"Tata favoured the idea of instituting a system for giving suitable reward to those for coming out with solution to problems," said a Council member, who attended the meet.

The Council was unanimous that railways should encourage its employees to come up with innovative ideas as suggested by Tata to address specific problems and also reward the innovator adequately, he said.

"He said it will be useful to showcase improvements even in small increments in various aspects like equipments processes, procedures, consumer acceptance etc," the release said.

It was decided to collect various data concerning railways of other countries like China, France, Germany and UK to fix a target for Indian Railways, the Council member said.

The two hour-long meeting held at the Rail Bhawan was also attended by Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and Minister of State for Railway Manoj Sinha along with all the Railway Board members.

General Secretary of National Federation of Indian Railwaymen M Raghavaiah and General Secretary of All-India Railwaymen's Federation Shiv Gopal Mishra also attended the meeting.

Referring to the cleanliness drive undertaken by the Railways across the country, Tata suggested involvement of public in the exercise being carried out at the rail premises.

The meeting also focussed on increased interface with customers and customer satisfaction.

Constitution of Kayakalp Council was announced in the Rail Budget 2015-16 with the aim of of business re-engineering and introducing a spirit of innovation in the Railways.