Turnaround Man

Ashwani Lohani has the unenviable task of getting the railways back on track

- Soumik Dey

On August 24, Ashwani Lohani arrived in Rail Bhavan in Delhi to take charge as chairman of the Railway Board. Before he entered the building, he paused for a moment and bowed down, as if acknowledging that he would need divine intervention to put matters right in the chief decision-making body of Indian Railways. For, unlike in the case of Air India, where he was chairman and managing director till the previous day, financials were just one of several problems plaguing the railways.

Soon after taking charge, he addressed nearly 3,000 officials at the Railway Bhavan auditorium, which is equipped to accommodate just a third of that figure. He told them that, together, they would end “VIP culture” and bring in “working culture”.

The system of allocating berths at short notice under ‘emergency quota’, perhaps, best symbolises what Lohani described as VIP culture. As many as 60,000 berths a day can be allocated this way, even though there is no guideline on what constitutes an emergency, nor a transparent system to allocate the berths. Mostly used by politicians and VIPs, emergency quota is a major source of corruption in the railways, as berths are often sold in the open market.

Lohani’s primary concern, however, will be different. “The first priority is safety,” he told journalists. “And then cleanliness of the stations.”

There have been five major derailments in the past one month, including two after Lohani took charge. The first accident under Lohani’s watch happened less than a week after he took charge. On August 29, the engine and nine coaches of the Nagpur-Mumbai Duronto Express derailed in Maharashtra.