The group comprises of Rakesh Bhatnagar, executive director, Research and Efficiency, who will also be heading the group, and members of seven other departments like Information Technology, Mechanical, Electrical, Civil, Finance, Passenger Marketing and Telecom.
The focus will also be on the improvement of the suburban railway system as of 1.25 crore passengers who use trains on a daily basis, over 64 lakhs are suburban rail passengers. The suburban rail in Mumbai faces the perennial problem of overcrowding. Improvement of facilities in suburban trains is certainly on our list. There is a scope to improve the suburban rail system, especially the scheduling of trains. The ventilation in the trains is another aspect which needs to be looked at and can be made better with inputs from various sources, Bhatnagar said. Every Sunday, maintenance works are carried out. We plan to work on the maintenance aspect as well.
The groups main aims are improvement of system efficiency and productivity of resources, enhancing the capacity of the existing system, achieving better customer satisfaction with value additions to customer services, introduction of modern system and technologies in the Railways, improvement in reliability and maintenance of cost.
The group which will act as a think tank would also be interacting with institutes like Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institute of Management (IIM). Institutes like IITs and IIMs cover important aspects on different issues and they are useful to us, said Bhatnagar. Apart from educational institutions, the IPG would also interact with international railways like Railways of China which runs its services in one of the worlds difficult terrains.
The IPG would also communicate with the industrial associations like the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the FICCI. The group will improve technical and financial productivity and help ensure the reliability of equipment. The group will make railways a passenger-friendly organisation, said a senior railway official.
Work has already begun. Weve started mailing the Indian universities and would soon be contacting research institutes and foreign universities who have been working to improve the rail system, said Bhatnagar.