THE RAJ ARE THE INDIAN RAILWAYS

ure of TELCO, was a renowned engineer of the time and was specially requested by JRD TATA to join TELCO for this project.

The boiler shop of TELCO was the best engineering workshop in india and engineers would visit TELCO’s Jamshedpur plant to just have a look of the shop .

Post-independence, however, as events unfolded in a socialistic set up TATA gradually withdrew from supplying both rails by TISCO and boilers/locomotives to Indian Railways.

The various private rail companies some of which were owned by Maharajas (princely kingdoms) were taken over by government and brought under the huge monolithic Indian Railways system which formed initially six and later nine zones to administer India’s rail system. In 2003 number of zones increased to 16.

owned by private rail compawere capable of manufacturing locomotives, coaches and wagons to requirements of big railway syssprawling across India.

During the 1914-1918 war, when capacity for steel manufacwas diverted for war-related requirements, Tata Iron And Steel (TISCO) came to the rescue Indian railways for meeting rail re- quirements for laying new track and for replacement purposes.

Tata's roots

Similarly, Tata Motors that started its journey as Tata Engineering and Locomotive company (TELCO) in 1945, was set up to manufacture steam locomotives for Indian rail companies. .

S Moolgaonkar, the founding fig-

Today I feel that non-entry of private players is one of the major reasons for Indian Railways to loose its rightful share in the transportation pie of the country which stood at more than 80% in pre-independence era and is at 28% today.

Rolling stock leasing companies, private train operators, freight train operators, companies to manage parcel/white goods, companies for terminals management, so on and so forth are the need of hour .