Piyush Goyal Seeks Ideas From Railway Staff To Boost Profitability

Reaching out to employees, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has sought crowdsourcing of ideas for boosting profitability and bringing about transformational changes to the national transporter.

Goyal also asked them to come up with unique ideas to boost the revenue of the railways, minimise costs and improve its freight share.

“The hearts of railway employees beat for the organisation. They would be having ideas which can boost the profitability of railways,” Goyal said while addressing an online conference of rail workers.

‘Workmen Sanghosti’ was organised by the railways yesterday (16 July) in which representatives of railway workers’ unions along with senior officials across the country participated.

The unique move comes in the backdrop of huge losses incurred by the public transporter due to the coronavirus pandemic, causing suspension of passenger train services.

Facing a global pandemic, humanity is experiencing an unprecedented crisis now and the state-run transporter is no exception to it, he said.

Seeking cooperation, the minister urged the leaders of the federations to ponder on how the railways can overcome the crisis due to the pandemic.

Highlighting the safety and welfare measures for all employees, he stressed upon the collective effort required by the railways officers, unions and staff during this phase to tide over the crisis.

Currently, the railways is also in the process of finalising various cost-cutting measures to bring down its expenses.

Goyal asked general managers and divisional railway managers to actively seek the ideas from the employees and transmit them to the ministry.

Addressing the meeting on virtual platform, Minister of State of Railways, Suresh Angadi, said the Indian Railways has never stopped in the last 167 years, but it was stopped due to the pandemic.

Angadi congratulated the staff for working as “warriors” in the current times.

Earlier, Railway Director General (Human Resources) Anand Khati, said the national transporter has more than 12.18 lakh employees on its rolls, out of which, 1.21 lakh employees have been recruited recently.

He said the process of recruitment for 1.40 lakh vacancies has been initiated. The office-bearers of various railway federations also highlighted the work done by the employees during the challenging times amid the pandemic.

Leaders of both All India Railwaymen's Federation and National Federation of Indian Railwaymen presented their views on the virtual platform.

Office-bearers of the federations highlighted the work done by railway employees in challenging Covid-19 times and sought active engagement in the process of transformational changes sweeping the railways.

Union leaders said that employees were standing with the ministry in its mission for development of railways.

Improvement of efficiency and financial health is not only in the interest of the employees but of the nation, and railway employees are capable of taking any responsibility, they said.