Avishek G Dastidar

This Lord Shiva-themed train will be followed by a Ramayan-themed train to be launched next month from across India in a big way, marking Indian Railways’ major push in the religious tourism segment.

The government has decided that from 2021 UPSC will hold a separate exam for candidates of the Civil Services exam to join IRMS, like the Indian Forest Service does.

The government is expecting an investment in rolling stock to the tune of at least Rs 22,500 crore, and Railways is hoping to earn through licence fee and haulage charges by leasing out 100 traffic-heavy routes to private players, who will operate 150 trains.

The Budget, to be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday, however, might not reflect this scenario yet, papering over what is being believed to be the worst financial crisis ever faced by the national transporter.

Sources told The Indian Express that one of the options the Railways Ministry might propose to the Committee of Secretaries is to give serving officers an element of choice.

A letter jointly written by the service associations of Indian Railway Traffic Service, Indian Railway Personnel Service and Indian Railway Accounts Service officers says that the move to merge the cadres will kill specialization in Railways

In its petition, the association has suggested that the posts of zonal General Managers, Divisional Railway Managers (DRM) and Railway Board Members should be filled through a revised selection process and not just through seniority among various services.

The proposed merger combines all cadres of Railways officers into a single Indian Railways Management Service (IRMS). Any eligible officer can occupy any post, irrespective of training and specialisation.

Sources said a possible marginal increase in the suburban network, scattered over various distance slabs, is on the discussion table, even though no timeline has been decided and the details are still being worked out.

A pan-railway Civil Services Officers’ Association is being revived to represent all three services — Traffic, Accounts and Personnel.

The government has decided to trim the Railway Board, and merge service cadres. How were the Railways being run so far, and why was an overhaul felt necessary? And why has it upset civil servants in Railways?

The civil servants of Railways have been on a protest against the government’s recent decision to merge all the eight technical and non-technical services into one Indian Railway Management Service.

An additional 1 paisa per kilometer will be charged on ordinary non-AC trains and 2 paise per kilometer will be charged extra for Express Non-AC trains

His report is being cited by the government and all stakeholders to argue both in favour of and against the recent controversial move to unify all eight Group A services into one Indian Railways Management Service.

Thousands of postcards are being readied to be sent to Modi and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, signed by civil servants and others from Railways, demanding two unified services — one technical and one non-technical — instead of one for civil servants.

“We are going to rationalise both fare and freight. Freight rates are already very high so I don’t think we will be raising freight rates... in fact, we need to rationalise freight rates... to bring down logistics cost,” Railway Board chairman V K Yadav said.

Those who expressed apprehension about the move to merge all eight Group A railway services — five technical and three non-technical — were mostly from the civil services working in zonal units.

Five-member Board with merged IRMS officers likely to be in by next year.

The idea, according to officials, is to take up the mammoth project in the next phase of India’s station modernisation plan.