34 minute read
Keshav Kumar Rail, MRTS & Transit Infra Expert
At present only mega cities having certain level of transport system, so people are moving in to those cities for their livelihood. We have to change the scenario for future sustainability. We need to develop advance level of transport systems in all types of cities which can car ry large number of users.
Keshav Kumar
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Rail, MRTS & Transit Infra Expert
Keshav is having more than 17 years of experience in successfully managing large scale infrastructure projects. He was associated with Delhi Metro, GE Transportation, PwC, High Speed Rail and other Railway & Transit projects.
How has been your journey in the Railway and Metro sector ? What do you about the future of Urban Transit system in India ?
First of all, I would like thank urban Transport News for giving an opportunity to share my journey and thought about the development of Urban Transport system in Indian cities.
I spent significant years for the development of Public transport system. Post education, I started my professional journey from Indian Railway and then joined Delhi Metro. It was a turning point for me to explore the Metro System which was started recently in Delhi.
After Delhi Metro work for the development of Metro network in Gurgaon, Locomotive project in GE transport, High Speed Railway development in JICT and PwC advisory service for the development of Rail, MRTS and other modes of Public Transport systems.
See in India, most of the cities are highly dense, unplanned developed and lacking for a reliable transportation system Also number of road accidents are very high. The present traffic system is highly stressed condition (due to depleted infrastructure, poor connectivity, lower average speed etc.) and unable to cater the future requirement of cities.
Its not only impacting environment but also affecting the overall economic conditions of the users. Considering all such issue, we must have a combination of sustainable and green transport solution in urban areas.
The traffic problems are increasing in the cities with increase in population. As an Urban Transit expert, what would you suggest for this problem ?
With increased urbanisation and rise in population , one of the most challenging and complicated issues in city life is the traffic problem. Peak-hour traffic congestion in almost all large and growing metropolitan regions around the world is here to stay. In fact, it is almost certain to get worse during at least the next few decades, mainly because of rising vehicular movement.
At present only mega cities having certain level of transport system, so people are moving in to those cities for their livelihood. We have to change the scenario for future sustainability. We need to develop advance level of transport systems in all types of cities which can carry large number of users. Development should in a distributed format to improve Use of Intelligent Transportation System to manage the traffic problem. Integrated development is also a key parameter for seamless transition from one mode to other mode. Government is in the process for the development of smart cities and transport system in India cities.
How do you think is the concept of RRTS going to change the concept of transport system in the NCR region ? Please share your opinion.
RRTS will be a game changer in NCR after successful operation of Delhi Metro. As we know that majority of people have migrated or commuting from near by locations to Delhi for their work or businesses. The common mode of commuting is either by personal vehicle or buses.
After RRTS, with reduce cost and convenience people would definitely like to travel from the nearby location to central Delhi area and vice versa. It will not only improve the regional connectivity but also create enamors opportunities in nearby cities in every segment. Similar concept should be implemented in connecting cities which will becomes decongest the exiting area and also reduce the overall pollution and demand of personal vehicle.
The Railway is bringing new reforms through trains like Vande Bharat and station redevelopment plan. What do you think about it?
Users are expecting for standard services and safety in railway journey in comparison with the airlines..
Its a visionary plan by the Government to developed world class stations and upgraded infrastructure like new types of trains, Vande Bharat Express, Tejas Express etc,. improved signalling system, OHE etc.
Although no. of initiatives have already been taken up by the Ministry of Railways (MoR) and zones, still Railway is really struggling on their services and infrastructure development front.
To completely turnaround the railway infrastructure, it will be a mammoth effort and need huge investment. I have a very optimistic view on the future development, however to see a significant impact of such a type of vision, all projects should be taken into fast track with a strict timeline. Railways should start working towards participative models, give clarity on requirements, and onboarding professionals who can support implementation of such mega plans. There are no. of development models are successfully implemented across the world and railways should also adopt those concepts.
What changes shall be made in train operations to reduce accidents when it comes to Railways ? What are the improvements which can be made in the operations of Metro trains ?
It is unfortunate that we have no. railway accidents report every year and thousands of people lost their lives in train accidents in the past. Every accident not only destroys human life but also has a significant impact on the railway assets.
In India, more than 70 % people are using trains for interstate travel. Railway carries millions of passengers on a daily basis. We should take priority to reduce/stop any kind of accident whether due to human error or any other reason. Our trains and associated system should be completely failsafe with zero error.
See, Although Metro system is guided system similar to railway system but If you compare Railway operation with Metro system, only few occasions accidents happen due to technical snags, also no loss of human life had happen in any of the metro in India.
Operationally metro systems are mature but still lots of improvements can be done as per the local conditions requirement. We should focus on the journey and time vs money assessment, so that gaps can be identified and provide solutions to the commuters. It also supports operating organisations to manage their operational income and expanses.
As Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat initiatives gain new shapes, what do you think about these initiatives ? Please share your views.
It’s a noble concept of creating ecosystem for self-sustained manufacturing capabilities. As we know, we are dependent on export items in the metro and advanced level of transport solution development.
See India is a growing economy and the entire world is looking for a market. Our local suppliers and manufacturers are capable of meeting the future requirement but the major challenge is to compete with international suppliers on cost of the product, their life cycle and quality.
Govt. focus and initiatives are very much evident on the development as Make in India, MSME, restricting
international bidding at certain value, and local content conditions. We have an enormous opportunity to develop a strong manufacturing Hub to meet the internal requirement and also for the rest of the world.
We must promote our industry by developing them, secure demands and create other enablers in support of it but also be ready to develop innovative and best quality products for the world.
I would like to appreciate Indian railway, who has not only developed in house manufacturing capabilities but also exporting to few customers. Similar approaches would be seen in the metro and other segments as well.
What do you think about the driverless train technology which was introduced in India through Delhi Metro ? What are the pros and cons of this technology as per your opinion ?
Transportation Technology is changing day by day and we are in an open world structure. We are at the very initial stage so every new technology should either be developed or brought to use for a better transport solution. In Metro, Rolling Stock with GoA2/3 is very common but now GoA4 is also available, it gives the next level of safety in train operation and optimised services. I don’t see any problem in using driverless trains. Dubai and other cities are using such technology very successfully. Delhi Metro is also implementing driverless technology in a stage-wise manner. You will see other metros will be also using similar technology in near future
Do you think the infrastructural development of the mass transit system is adequate in India ? What do you think about the topic?
In India, urbanisation rate is very high with a growing population, the country is working hard to transform itself over the next few decades. Every city is required to develop adequate urban infrastructure for future development, in which Improving public transportation is a priority for govt. We need every city to be equipped with a reliable and safe transport system as per local conditions. For the next 15-20 years we have to create good numbers of transit infra projects, should be a combination of possible modes. All smart cities are working in the same direction. I am hoping within 2-3 years we will have a reasonable transport infra system in Indian cities.
What are the new technological advancements coming in the field of Metro and train operations? How will these technologies transform the future of the sector?
The rapid pace of technological, environmental and demographic change is leading to some major technological innovations in the world of rail and metro. New and upcoming technologies will change the entire transport system development and management. Metro systems around the world have many differences in their design and operation, one aspect of which is the level of automation. Like driver less operation, Asset management, fault detection and corrective actions, easy control, real time monitoring, passenger access, infotainment, etc. It will also improve the operational safety and security with reduced cost and time
As 5G is going to be rolled out in next few years, what changes do you think it will bring ? Please explain.
Today’s current communication systems are unable to provide adequate services to satisfy both passengers and rail operators
5G is offering many technological advances throughout the world in other industries in terms of cellular reliability, so why not apply these advantages to the railway systems as well?
5G will be at the heart of Future Railway Mobile Communications System (FRMCS), the successor to GSM-R allows for real-time updates on ticketing and availability, closures, delays, and much more pertinent information a traveller would seek at a moment’s notice.
On a deeper level, 5G also helps technicians, conductors, and other railway workers to have real-time monitoring of the entire train systems, including areas of wear and tear. As per industry 5G is set to revolutionise Automatic Train Operations: 5G’s higher bandwidth will also enable greater use of high-quality video for security, enhanced communications between operating personnel, improved situational awareness during emergencies, aerial inspections, and a host of other data-hungry applications.
You were a part of the webinar organised by Urban Transport News and Metro Rail Today. What suggestions and messages would you like to give to our firm?
First of all, I would like to congratulate the Urban Transport News and Metro Rail Today team for their marathon effort to conduct such a detailed Webinar series on Urban transport system, emerging technology and research. Every session was very informative and knowledgeable, I personally enjoyed it a lot.
In future you can create a subject specific webinar and conference where industry leaders can present and share their achievements and thoughts for the development in the Transport sector.
What Will It Take for India to Reach Its Infrastr ucture Goals?
Wharton India Economic Forum
Skepticism abounds over whether the nearly US$3 trillion Indian economy is growing fast enough to reach Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s GDP target of UD$5 trillion by 2024 - 25. But signs suggest that economic activity may have bottomed out, and foreign institutional investors are placing big bets on India’s infrastructure sector, according to participants in a panel discussion at the Wharton India Economic Forum held last year in Mumbai., India Foreign investors are attracted to “butterflies” or cash-flow generating assets like existing airports to operate and use as a cushion to invest in greenfield projects, the panelists said. They are optimistic also because of improved transparency in governance of projects, auction systems for allocation of licensing for public resources, the existence of a top tier of well-managed private companies and other market mechanisms such as the creation of funding platforms for infrastructure, they noted.
In order to reach its GDP goal of $5 trillion, India’s economy will need to grow at a sustained rate of 9% over the next five years, according to C. Rangarajan, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on January 20 sharply revised downward India’s growth forecast by 130 basis points to 4.8% for 2019-2020. In its World Economic Outlook update, IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath said growth in India slowed sharply “owing to stress in the non-bank financial sector and weak rural income growth. ”
Three Metrics That Matter
“At some level, the growth rate is an irrelevant number,” said Alok Kshirsagar, senior partner at consulting firm McKinsey, who leads its risk practice in Asia. He noted that “we obsess about” the growth rate and listed three metrics that matter. The first is the pace of private and public investment, particularly investment in terms of
actual capital expenditure and capital formation. The second is the pace of growth in new income and job opportunities, such as the employment created by ecommerce platforms in food delivery or taxi hailing, he said. The third is the growth in per capita income, which is rising, according to government data.
The major challenge India faces is concerns net new investment, which has been depressed because liquidity challenges at banks have limited credit offtake, according to Kshirsagar. “[That] has prevented a large part of the engines of the economy, such as the small and medium enterprises sector and the supply chains, from growing and caused them to freeze up over the last two or three years,” he said.
Much of the pain caused by such liquidity challenges is “self-inflicted,” said Kshirsagar. “I look at this as corporate India driving itself into a ditch. About a year ago everyone persuaded themselves that the sky was about to fall. ” According to him, while a few non-banking finance companies had “some deep-rooted issues” because they engaged in corrupt practices and fraud, the problem was blown out of proportion.
“We have taken what could have been an isolated set of issues associated with five or six institutions — a bank, an NBFC, a mutual fund and a couple of real estate development companies — and made it an economy-wide problem,” Kshirsagar said. “We have to get our confidence back because we got ourselves into this ditch. We have to jump out of it. ”
The Indian government is trying to make financing available for infrastructure projects. One is the creation of the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund with investors such as the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Temasek of Singapore and the HDFC Group. The government has also announced Rs. 100 trillion ($1.4 trillion) in infrastructure projects covering the power, railways, urban irrigation, mobility, education and health sectors. Efforts to sell stressed assets of India’s public sector banks and divest government holdings in state-owned corporations are other encouraging signs. In the latest Union budget that was presented three weeks after the WIEF conference, the government set a disinvestment target of $2.1 trillion by 2021.
India’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had claimed that the economy is returning to a sound footing, with “seven key green shoots” that are clearly visible, including foreign direct investment and foreign portfolio investment trends, industrial production and the purchasing managers’ index. A day later, two indicators dampened that enthusiasm: Retail prices rose to 7.6% in January, rising to its highest since 2014, and industrial output shrank by 0.3% in December 2019.
Growing Optimism?
Encouraging signs are visible are visible at toll plazas and tax collections that reflect activity in the informal and formal sectors, respectively, said Shailesh Pathak, CEO of L&T Infrastructure Development Projects Ltd. (L&T IDPL), the Chennai-based infrastructure development subsidiary of engineering and construction services company Larsen & Toubro. He noted that GST (goods and services tax) collections in November 2019 were up 6% and crossed Rs. 103,000-crore ($14.4 billion), reversing two quarters of negative growth, according to government data.
They have since crossed Rs. 110,000 crore ($15.4 billion) as of January 2020, according to government data. “The true number that matters for the formal economy is GST collections,” he said. “Numbers don’t have ideology. ”
Toll plazas offer a sense of the informal economy, noted Pathak, whose company operates 33 toll plazas across the country. “From the end of October onwards, the traffic numbers reveal that the worst is behind us,” he said. He noted that the formal corporate sector accounts for barely 14% of the Indian economy, and that most of India’s economic activity happens in the informal sector.
Across its toll plazas, L&T IDPL collects about a million dollars each day, Pathak noted. Of that, digital toll collections have grown from 2% in November 2016 to 64% as of early January 2020, he said. “This is not counted in GDP, but it has removed queues from toll plazas in our projects. There are 540 toll plazas in the country. Can you estimate the savings in those toll plaza queues in diesel, congestion and the waste of time?”
More and more of the informal sector is finding its way into GDP calculations, thanks to simplified tax regimes and a push towards greater compliance. “For a long time, the business model for many of these informal businesses was tax evasion,” said Pathak. “That’s not a sustainable business model. ”
All that will doubtless boost India’s macroeconomic performance, said Pathak. “Whatever the GDP growth rate is next year, by 2024-2025, it will definitely be 300 basis points more than that,” he predicted. He noted that India overtook the U.K. economy in terms of GDP size last year, and said it would surpass Germany and Japan by 2029.
Speeding up Growth
“After India won independence [in 1947], it took 60 years to get to the first trillion dollars,” said Sujay Bose, CEO of the National Infrastructure Investment Fund. “The next trillion took 10 years and then from $2 trillion to $2.9 trillion took roughly three years. Now, in five years to do $2 trillion more is not out of whack; it can be done. ”
Bose pointed out that the decade between 2005 and 2015 saw almost a trillion dollars of investments in infrastructure projects in the country. “The second trillion [can be achieved] faster if you do things the right way,” he said.
India is already moving up the leagues in some infrastructure segments, Bose noted. For example, over the next few years, the four largest global metro footprints will include three in China and in India (the fourth will be in Tokyo), edging out London and New York City. “If we can achieve that kind of directional investment in infrastructure, it becomes a key leg of the GDP growth to $5 trillion. ”
Pathak said he thinks better days are ahead for India’s infrastructure sector also because the abuses of the publicprivate partnership (PPP) model in past years have declined and the government is coming down heavily on errant actors. “In India, PPPs became TTTs, or taxpayer-totycoon transfers,” he said. In such PPPs, an infrastructure project would be gold-plated with inflated costs that banks would fund, enabling private sector participants to take out their equity even before commercialization, he explained. “Obviously, when you run a $1,000 infrastructure project at a capitalized value of $2,000, you are not going to make money,” he explained.
However, if after completion, the project does generate positive cash flows and makes profits, the private sector partners would stick with it, he noted. “If it doesn’t [become profitable, the private sector partners] walk away. The banks carry the can. ” Many of those PPP excesses occurred between 2006 and 2012, saddling public sector banks with nonperforming assets that are hobbling them till date, Pathak said. Since the government is reluctant to let public sector banks go under, it recapitalizes them with taxpayer money, he noted. “That is not a sustainable business model. ” Bose expected the PPP concept to “reemerge in a different way, with all the lessons that we have learnt from the previous decade. ”
Pathak offered an alternative and sustainable way to operate infrastructure projects: Build them using government money, and once it’s a cash flow yielding asset, hand them over to the private sector to operate them. Mumbai and New Delhi airports are prime examples of private sector companies taking over operations after they were built with public funds, and they also make way for construction of additional terminals, he noted.
Butterflies and Caterpillars
Under-construction, public funded infrastructure projects are “caterpillars” and those handed over to the private sector for operations are “butterflies,” said Pathak. “Caterpillars are ugly to look at and full of risk. Butterflies are lovely, cash flow yielding assets for the next 30 years. ” The upshot of that, according to him, is that “butterflies” will attract international funding because they have secure cash flows in sight, while “caterpillars” will find it hard to raise such capital. A second terminal at Mumbai’s international airport is a “butterfly”, since it is built by private sector partner GVK Power and Infrastructure, but the same company’s winning bid to build a greenfield airport in the Navi Mumbai will find it challenging to attract international capital, he added.
Butterflies are clearly in demand, as recent deals show. Last October, NIIF and its partners Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Canada’s PSP Investments signed a deal to acquire an equity stake of 26.3% each in the GVK group’s holding company that owns Mumbai international airport, for a total value of $1 billion. Pathak revealed that the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Canada’s largest pension fund, which last September bought a 51% controlling stake in L&T Infrastructure Development Projects, is “very clearly looking at butterflies” for its India investments.
He said the government could open similar “butterfly” opportunities for investors in assets with existing cash flows such as railway stations. “If you have a footfall of 300,000 in a railway station, of course there is money to be made. The private sector would be happy to take it over. ”
Caterpillars are ugly to look at and full of risk. Butterf lies are lovely, cash f low yielding assets for the next 30 years.
On that note, he pointed out that a competition is underway between many Indian cities to build their own metros, and that in the next 10 years, at least 25 Indian cities will have state-of-the art metro systems.
As it happens, greenfield “caterpillar” projects are also attracting international investors. The NIIF combine with Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Canada’s PSP Investments (a pension investments manager) will also get the rights to build the Navi Mumbai airport. NIIF’s other partner, Zurich Airport International AG of Switzerland, recently won the concession to build a second airport at Jewar near New Delhi. The Zurich Airport Group had in 2016 sold its stake in Bengaluru’s international airport to Fairfax Group of Canada. “We are actually able to get really serious, high-quality capital into greenfield projects,” said Bose. “This is a turning point in the infrastructure development picture in India. ”
Investing in Infrastructure
Kshirsagar pointed to a few aspects that make India’s infrastructure projects more attractive to international investors than they were in the past. First, the presence of “large, professionally -run companies” such as L&T Infrastructure Development Projects and the emergence of NIIF as major funding platform is fundamentally changing the infrastructure market. Increasing transparency in governance and the use of auctions to allocate public resources have made it easier to attract international equity capital, he said. “As a fundamental premise of resource allocation, a huge change as occurred in the last five or six years [with auctions] as a way of allocating resources. When you look back 20 years from now, it will be a very important development to encourage more professional capital to avoid the gold-plating [of projects] and the tycoons’ corruption and political corruption. ”
The push towards asset monetization at public sector organizations, such as the planned divestment at the stateowned logistics company Concor [Container Corporation of India], is driving “a lot of excitement from all the major global sovereign funds and global infrastructure investment funds to participate in that,” he added. “There is an important virtuous cycle occurring where the government is under pressure to do asset monetization, international capital is looking for butterflies, and you now have platforms and vehicles such as the NIIF through which to do that. I am optimistic about the combination of the market mechanism and asset monetization with a more transparent project pipeline to encourage equity capital. ”
Role of State and City Governments
While most attention is focused on the central government, India’s state and city governments play an underappreciated but crucial role in ensuring the success of infrastructure projects, the panelists noted. Kshirsagar pointed out that more than half of tax revenues in India are controlled by states. “Historically, when state-run corporations were run well, they had an enormous role to play,” he said. For example, the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation or the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation played an important role in land allocation and creating the ecosystems in their respective states in the 1950s, 1960s and the 1970s, he said.
However, decay has set in over the years at several stateowned corporations. “Unfortunately, most of them have in in the last 10 or 15 years have become huge sources of corruption and sweetheart deals, and there has been an atrophying of their capabilities,” Kshirsagar said. New structures such as special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to implement infrastructure projects have helped, and they are enabling many private sector companies to participate in smart-city projects including smart metering, water treatment and sewage treatment “that would simply have not been possible earlier,” he added. “Collectively, we need to raise that bar on [state-owned corporations] by using SPVs and other structures to encourage more private sector participation. ”
According to Pathak, city governments represent an “even bigger risk” than state governments in infrastructure projects. “The way the state operates in India, the city is a subservient body. So, there is no champion for the city called Mumbai. It is the chief minister of Maharashtra who’s running Mumbai; it is the chief minister of Karnataka who is running Bangalore. This is not going to work. ”
Another risk for investors in infrastructure projects relates to the enforcement of contracts, Pathak said. If contracts cannot be enforced, they will lead to time and cost overruns in projects, he cautioned. “In Singapore, if I give a check and it bounces, I go to jail. In India if my check bounces, it is the start of negotiations because nobody wants to go to court. ” According to Bose, growing aspirations among Indian citizens for development, and the
unrelenting pace of urbanization will drive a “bottom-up” push for infrastructure projects.
Looking Beyond the Numbers
Kshirsagar reiterated that GDP growth numbers are irrelevant, in response to a member of the audience who pointed to a Harvard research paper last year by India’s former chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian. In that paper, Subramanian contended that between 2014 and 2018, India’s GDP had been overstated by 2.5 percentage points. Against official estimates of 7%, India’s GDP growth was no more than 4.5%, he had argued.
“What is powerful about Arvind’s paper is it looks at the underlying drivers of consumption and investment. And it did show that they were not growing,” Kshirsagar said. But since then, corrective mechanisms have been put in place such as with auctions of public resources, more transparent contract allocation and greater accountability, he added.
Reforms such as the introduction of the GST regime to unify the multiple taxes that prevailed earlier are important and positive structural changes, even if they were poorly executed, he added. GDP growth numbers represent the overall picture, but it is important to look for those that perform better than the average, such as states such as Chhattisgarh and parts of Madhya Pradesh that have done better than the industrial powerhouses of the past, including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, he said. The same is true for companies, where a select few high performers that are better governed will be able to take advantage of opportunities that transparent market mechanisms make available. “Forget the averages. Just look at where the growth is. ”
Bose had advice for those about to start their careers or those who are in the early stages of their careers: “Read what the economists say but focus on what investors are doing. The largest and savviest investors in the world are allocating more and more of their capital to one, infrastructure, and two, to India. Forty percent of the largest investors in the world are saying that their top allocation of exposure is going to be for the infrastructure sector, and almost all the large institutional investors who operate outside the OECD countries have India as one of the top destinations of capital. ”
Book Review
My Train 18 Stor y
Book Title: My Train 18 Story Authored by: Sudhanshu Mani Language: English Publisher: Kiva Prakashan, Lucknow Launch Date: June 1, 2021 Price: Rs 295/- (Paperback), Rs 895 (Hard Cover) Overall Rating: 4/5
Review by:
Manoranjan Kumar, Associate Editor, Metro Rail Today
Mr. Sudhanshu Mani the author of the book titled My Train 18 Journey. He is generally known as the Trainman of India. He has been one of the crucial officials as he led the project to design which afterwards manufactured the first ever semi-high speed modern train of India, the Train 18 and this is known as Vande Bharat express which is currently in operation. This has been an indigenously developed train and this book talks about Mr Mani’s last 29 months as a government servant heading the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) of Indian Railways (IR) at Chennai. Mr Mani underlines different challenges which came on the way of the journey of Train-18.
It is not only a narrative about how a train was conceived, developed and built but it deeply talks about the processes, techniques and planning involved in the making of Train18. The process has not been a single day process but it took years to complete the process and the author discusses the last 29 months of his service in ICF as already told. The book is only of its kind in the whole country and a must read for all the youths and train lovers. The train itself had transcended the mundane to sublime because it took the countrymen by a storm in 2018 when it was put on line as a symbol of what aspirational India needed. The book describes the journey of a man, and above all his team, which committed itself to creating something which was hitherto considered unachievable. They have created a symbol for developing and aspirational India. Train-18 represents this symbol in a more precise and peculiar way. The writer narrates the whole story in a very beautiful way and his own style and techniques. It is undoubtedly that he has given a very unique, honest and brief description of the whole journey and process of the making of Train-18. The book is about leadership of an individual which brings transformational changes in any organization. The book is about the creative power of Indian engineers, which if channelized properly and which can create histories and wonders. The book brings out the stifling bureaucracy of Indian Railways but it’s not about this malady which plagues India but about how bold and devoted men can challenge the babudom and vanquish it to give to the country something which was a long time coming. The narrative has been wonderful as men like him have been creating new heights despite the different bureaucratic challenges which any government organization faces today and Indian Railways is not at all an exception.
The book has many interesting anecdotes to press the points the author wants to make. Interspersed with Shakespearean and Ghalibian quotes, perhaps overdone, it is also a delight for those who seek to define managerial situations and solutions through poetic expressions. As the story unfolds, unusual devices used by the author manmanagement and team-building emerge and there lies a lesson or two between executives in public as well as private spheres. Primacy of the human resource in any organization, particularly a large one like Indian Railways, has been deciphered cogently with many personal examples. The examples and anecdotes act as apt pointers, making it different from a plethora of didactic books on the subject and cushion the points being made as “been there, done that” and mere homilies of someone from a high pedestal.
“Some of the anecdotes are hilarious, some are scathing but they all are befit the narrative tellingly. In one of these,
while describing his way to deal with people who do not care for action and delivery but sit smugly with inaction, the author says that they reminded him of jalebis because jalebi-making is synonymous with unnecessary nitpicking to stall any work. Whenever he came across any such instance, he would make his own judgement from file notings, invite the officers delaying the case to his room, order jalebis and offer it to them, saying that they had really earned this feast. In another one, he talks about a government officer and his briefcase. An officer never carries his briefcase, his peon does. Should he be required to carry it himself someday, he makes a funny spectacle as he thinks carrying a briefcase yourself is infra dig and so he makes a cartoon of himself. And this is why the author started using a shoulder bag early in his career”, notes a commentator.
It is a purely an insider’s description of the huge Rail Shivir, a sort of a jamboree for ideation organized by the Railway Ministry in Delhi is uproariously comical and brings out what nobody in the media ever even hinted at. Calling the senior officers chosen to make presentations to the PM, “a caboodle of burlesque”, which included him as well, it sarcastically brings out how a simple suggestion of the top man had made into a tamasha with the spirit of ideation taking a backseat and a drama was played out with 5000 railway men as willing, or unwilling, actors cum spectators. He really talks about the matter in a very honest and bold way. Indeed it is one of the biggest honest narrations of any major government project. In fact, being an insider’s narration, it adds more worth to Mr. Mani’s work.
When it comes about the beginning of the book, Mr. Mani who seems to be Perplexed and frustrated by the questions of the lack of modern trains in India, the author begins by wondering about “more of the same” mentality of IR and then shows that much more than the same is possible with country’s own resources. The author has included technical details too but with the stress on his mantras for dealing with such complexities as Public Procurement Systems, Design of Rolling Stock, Manufacturing techniques and Train Simulations. He wants quick and positive transformations and advocates about it. It is really a very genuine and factual effort of the writers which has come out in the form of this book and everybody who is interested in the development and modernisation of our country must read this book.
Even the technical details, however, are written in a manner which can be within the comprehension of average readers. For example, the author explains in the beginning what a train set is, while a conventional train is made up of coaches and a locomotive, an engine in common parlance, at one end or either end, a modern train set is a train of permanently-coupled coaches such that all the equipment is mounted under the train chassis itself and there are no locomotives and such a train has many advantages like faster acceleration, reduction in travel time, better comfort and aesthetics It is not only a very genuine and kind effort of Mr. Sudhanshu Mani but he describes the way his team went about determining their technical capability truthfully and then challenging themselves to strive for something beyond that but not being fool enough to attempt something which was way beyond in a way that is really a very interesting and true fact about the whole journey. His honest and genuine approach gives the book a shape which has made it an asset for the future generations of India. It is a must read book and it will work as a torch bearer for such projects which are going to be undertaken in the coming future.
Train 18 symbolises the innovative fervour, grit and technical competence of Sri Sudhanshu Mani and his ICF Team.
E. Sreedharan
Padma Vubhushan, Technocrat & Metroman of India
Satish Agnihotri takes charge of new Managing Director of National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL)
1982-batch IRSE Officer, Satish Agnihotri has been appointed as Managing Director of National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL). He has taken oven charge of Managing Director on July 1, 2021 from Achal Khare, who has been superannuated on June 30, 2021.
Prior to appointment to NHSRCL, Satish had been retired from the post of Chairman and Managing Director of Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL). He holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil), 1982 and Master of Engineering (Structures), 1984, both from IIT, Roorkee and was conferred the distinguished Alumnus Award in 2013 by IIT, Roorkee. Agnihotri comes with more than 19 years of experience in implementation of mega rail infrastructure projects.
He has worked as Chairman & Managing Director, Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), a schedule ‘A’ CPSE under the Ministry of Railways for close to 9 years. He also held the position of Chairman, High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd (HSRC), a fully owned subsidiary of RVNL since its inception in July 2012 till August 2018. HSRC was the Indian-side counterpart agency for carrying out various high-speed studies which were undertaken on Governmentto-Government basis with China, Spain etc. and completed feasibility studies of 5 high speed rail corridors.
During his tenure as CMD/RVNL, RVNL completed 7000 km of project length including 3000 km doubling/3rd line, 880 km conversion of metre gauge track to broad gauge, 3000 km railway electrification, 85 km new line, 6 factories and many important bridges. A 7 km long tunnel was also completed in a record time of 25 months in a new line project in Andhra Pradesh.
Now Satish Agnihotri has responsibility to lead the more than 7 high speed rail projects planned in India.
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