Railway Board asks zonal railways to fill up vacancies in electrification projects

NEW DELHI: The Railway Board has asked zonal railways to fill up vacancies in electrification projects being executed by Central Organisation for Railway Electrification (CORE), after the organisation’s head has pointed out an “acute shortage” of supervisors in the project, which is affecting the progress of the electrification works.
In a letter sent to all Zonal Railways earlier this week, the Railway Board has asked them to comply with a previous order that vested responsibility in General Managers of Zonal Railways to ensure sufficient staff in the electrification projects.

After former railway minister Suresh Prabhu announced in 2016 the plan to electrify 90 per cent of existing broad gauge tracks by identifying 24,400 route kilometres, current rail minister has called for 100% electrification of the entire rail network.

At a recent public forum, Goyal said that the Indian Railways will achieve 100% electrification within the next three and a half years.

The letter issued by Railway Board on September 8 cited an October 2017 order where it was “clearly stated that filling up of vacancies of CORE projects shall be primarily the responsibility of the Zonal Railways in whose territorial jurisdiction the electrification project is being undertaken.”

The concerned General Managers and Divisional Railway Managers were to tie up with the concerned heads of the railway electrification project to ensure posting of sufficient number of staff in a manner similar to that for construction projects, as per the 2017 order.

“The General Manager, CORE, in the monthly demi official letter (MCDO) upto June, 2020, has pointed out that there is an acute shortage of supervisors in the projects, which is adversely affecting the progress of electrification works,” the letter, reviewed by ET, read.

"The matter has accordingly been considered. It is observed that the difficulty of shortage of staff being faced by CORE may cause delay in the execution of the projects handled by them, impacting the unit cost of operations of Indian Railways adversely," it read.

The Board has asked for strict compliance of the 2017 order, with necessary action to be taken to spare the non-gazetted supervisors for the railway electrification projects at the earliest.

Indian Railways has completed electrification of more than 40,000 Route kilometre (RKM) of which 18,605 km electrification work has been done during the last six years.