Chapter 13 - Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) | A Bouquet of Services by IPS Lohit Matani and IPS Vishal - UPSC PDF Download

Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS)

Contributor:  Mr. Anant Raman Sharna, IRTS 2015 Batch

13.1 Cadre Structure and Overview

In British time, with the high growth of railway network and increasing traffic, the British Government recognized the need for a separate department for handling train operations. As a result, a scheme of Traffic Superiors Establishment, 1989 was sanctioned by the then Secretary of State. After this the service was known as Officers of the Superior Revenue Establishment of the Traffic, Transportation and Commercial Department of Indian Railways. However, IRTS was reconstituted in 1967 to take its present form.

At the Railway Board (Ministry of Railways) level, the Traffic Department is headed by Member (Traffic). He is assisted by Additional Members/ Advisors who are of the rank of HAG+/ HAG officer. At present, there are additional member(s)/advisor(s), each for the commercial, traffic, computerization and information systems, tourism and catering wings of the traffic department. Within each wing, there are directorates which are headed by an Executive Director, a SAG rank officer. Some of the directorates are traffic, commercial (rates), planning, coaching, passenger marketing, statistics and economics (under Financial Commissioner), freight marketing, public grievances, computerization and information systems, tourism and catering.

At the zonal level, the operating and commercial departments are headed by IRTS officers of the rank of Chief Operations Manager (COM) and Chief Commercial Manager (CCM). At the divisional level, the operating and commercial departments are headed by IRTS officers of the rank Senior Divisional Operations Manager (Sr. DOM) and Senior Divisional Commercial Manager (Sr. DCM).

13.2 Roles and Responsibilities

An IRTS officer coordinates the production and sale of transportation output and manages the customer interface of railways. They are posted mainly in two streams: Operations and Commercial.

I.    In Operating Department:

IRTS officers are responsible for ensuring smooth and fast transportation of freight and passengers. A typical work profile of an AOM/ DOM involves running of goods and passenger trains as mentioned below:

1. Officer oversees working of around 100-120 stations comprising of around 2000 operating branch employees.
2. Officer handles assets involving wagons and coaches worth around Rs. 2000 crore.
3. Officer is responsible for freight loading/ unloading in his division and hence closely associates with various industries like cement, coal, thermal power plants, fertilizers, food grains etc.
4. Officer is the head of the train control room which comprises of support staff from various other services for directing train operations in the entire division. The control room is like the brain of a division. It monitors the scheduled running of trains and keeps a continuous watch on them.

Apart from the above he/she, performs the following functions in the operating department:

1. He/ she coordinates with the service departments looking after various assets of railways like track, wagons, engines, signals, etc. Then he/she combines the outputs of various departments maintaining the assets-rolling stock, locomotives, wagons and other fixed infrastructure to produce a service output- passenger or freight. In this manner, he/ she ensures optimum utilization of assets maximizing outputs with least inputs.
2. IRTS officers are involved in long and short term planning to run trains on day-to-day basis.
3. They issue the detailed time table of passenger trains once in six months.
4. They do the task of ordering the trains, booking the crew, overseeing the safe running of trains and arranging various requirements on the run.
5. They are responsible for maintaining the safety aspects in the train.
6. They are responsible for the productivity of the system which is measured in terms of operating indices like ton kilometers and passenger kilometers.

II.  In Commercial Department:

In the commercial department, an IRTS officer is connected with sales, pricing, marketing and service elements of the passenger business and freight business. An officer does the following works in this department:

1. He/ she is responsible for the sale of transportation services of railways. In zonal headquarters, he/she also manages the information technology requirement of passenger ticketing.
2. They are responsible for creating and developing traffic charts for Indian Railways.
3. They are responsible for maintaining friendly relations with the travelling and trading public and for cultivating good public relations in general.
4. They also do the task of fixing rates, fares and other charges and ensure the correct collection, accounting and remittance of traffic receipts.

III. At Railway Board Level:

At the railway board level, IRTS officers lead various portfolios like freight rates, coaching rates, train reservation, catering, marketing, research, claims and refunds.

IV. Future and Changing Role:

There has been a paradigm shift in the working ethos of railways. In the past, investment decisions were made without any correlation with the returns. But now IRTS officers have to increase their focus on reduction in unit cost of operations, Public Private Partnership (PPP), enhanced load running, freight discount schemes, Management Information System (MIS), proliferation of Freight Operations Information System (FOIS), Coaching Operations Information System (COIS), Track Management System (TMS), Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS), privatization of container business, and so on.

Officers are now giving priority to works like timely completion of throughput enhancement works, additional procurement of rolling stocks, and rationalization of examination procedures of rolling stocks. Officers are now trying to be in the business of logistics rather than rail transport. They are acting as managers of change in this time of transformation and re-engineering of railways. Their working knowledge of Indian Railways in all its complexities, and their ability in synergizing the efforts of all the departments of railways, increases their strength in making Indian Railways a modern business organization.

13.3 Normal Growth Profile

We will be discussing about the various career opportunities an IRTS has in a separate topic. However, this topic only deals with various positions an Officer holds during his normal professional life. These positions are held when he/ she is working in his/ her main line departments.

13.4 Recruitment

At present, there are two modes of recruitment to IRTS:

1. Through Civil Services Examination conducted by UPSC every year (50% of total Group “A” cadre).
2. Through promotion from Group B officers of Operating and Commercial departments of the Zonal Railways.

13.5 Training

The training structure of the IRTS is divided in to the phases as mentioned below.

The training is conducted at various national academies including National Academy of Indian Railways, Vadodara. Further, specialized training is imparted at the Indian Railway Institute of Transportation Management (IRITM), Lucknow. The officer trainees apart from extensive class room input, make study and field trips to various railway activity centers and other Centralized Training Institutes of Indian Railways, workshops and organizations across the country. It also includes parliamentary attachment, visits to important railway project sites, ports, other civil service academies and reputed management institutions.

Mid Career Training- The first mid career training of IRTS officers (Management Development Program) takes place after 8-10 years of service. The second mid career training, Advanced Management Training takes place in 16th-18th year of service.

13.6 Variety of Opportunities for IRTS Officers

Apart from the cadre posts, officers of IRTS also serve in the following organizations:

1. CRIS: Centre for Railway Information System.
2. IPRCL: Indian Port Rail Corporation Limited.
3. CONCOR: Container Corporation of India Ltd.
4. DFCCIL: Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd.
5. RITES: Rail India Technical and Economic Service.

13.7 Perks, Privileges and Advantages for IRTS Officers

IRTS officers enjoy the following advantages:

1. An IRTS officer works with cross functional teams of railways. This enhances his/ her learning experience and helps him in developing professional competence.
2. An officer always indulges in optimization of railway assets in a proper scientific manner. This helps him/her in developing the skill of maintaining economy and efficiency in whatever work he/ she does.
3. The officers of IRTS travel in the vast stretches of the country. Thus they have a high interaction with the members of all the other civil services. This enhances their network and importance among other service officers.
4. As Indian Railways is spread in the length and breadth of India, IRTS provides an opportunity to work in different parts of India.
5. He/ she comes into contact with people from various industries like cement, coal, thermal power plant, and so on. This widens his/her horizon, network and the arena of thought process.
6. Officers in IRTS do a line function, and not a staff/ support function. This brings them in direct contact of the public and the result of their work is immediately visible at the end of the day. Thus, their work is very indulging and involves a lot of adrenalin pumping.
7. IRTS officers also have various after service opportunities in big ports, logistic companies, and many manufacturing industries.

​13.8 Occupational Hazards

There are certain disadvantages of IRTS. Among the first is that there are 9 services in Indian Railways which aspire to rise to the top positions of railways. This power game sometimes demotivates an officer to work in true public spirit. Secondly, the amount of work recognition among pubic is not as high as that of All India Services. It is a 24×7 job with literally no holidays and weekends at least for the first 2 years of service. It is not a typical 9am to 5 pm job. Thus it involves a lot of work stress. Finally, sometimes officers also complain about the limited jurisdiction of railways.

13.9 Case Studies indicating the work, challenges and ethical dilemmas faced by an IRTS Officer

13.9.1 Operation Raftaar

Operation Raftaar before becoming a buzzword in the railway minister's budget speech of 2016, was already conceptualized and operationalized by Mr. Sachin, Sr. DOM Nagpur. He employed a multi pronged strategy that resulted in around 80% increase (19kmph to 35kmph) in the speed of goods trains in a period of less than 8 months with many other concomitant benefits. And he achieved this in one of the most heavily congested division of Indian Railways, known for heavy loading movements along the mineral belt of central India i.e. Nagpur. His participative management style resulted in coming together of senior officers and supervisors of different branches brainstorming together to identify lacunae and inculcate team spirit among the different departments. He ensured that regular maintenance work be given top priority so that the tracks can carry heavier loads at higher speeds. For this they conceptualized mega integrated corridor maintenance blocks’, where all departments will pool in their resources together to decrease duplication of efforts and optimize resources needed. He gave new names to his goods trains (Vaayu 001, Vaayu 002, Agni 001, Agni 002 etc.) filling a sense of urgency among all staff to cater to the demands of running these high speed goods trains.

The combined effect was that asset failure rate decreased, their reliability increased and even the response time for such failures decreased to a great extent so much so that a rail fracture could now be made good within 4 hours. He worked for confidence building measures with adjoining divisions making the interchange of trains smoother. Faster trains resulted in lesser working hours for staff resulting in huge decrease in overtime expenses. For example, 82% of the guards worked for less than 10 hours and pre departure detention was minimized. A less tired work force is a happy workforce that reflects in better sensitivity to safety and more alertness to unusual incidents thus decreasing chances of manual errors.

These efforts helped Mr. Sachin to increase the speed of goods trains from 19kmph (March 2015) to 26 kmph (by March 2016) and to 35 kmph (by December 2016). This also helped him receive the Railway Minister’s award. His work is seen as a path breaking initiative in Indian Railways.

However, during his work Mr. Sachin faced a lot of challenges. Firstly, his subordinates were not ready to improve in the right direction. There were vested interests in the slow movement of trains. Subordinates doubted his vision and showed lack of trust in the starting days. He also faced problems of work-life imbalance. He used to work day in and day out in order to reform the railway system. He faced a dilemma of giving priority to his family or his work.

Q. According to the work profile of IRTS, what were the leadership qualities shown by Mr. Sachin in bringing a breakthrough reform in railways? Generally officers face certain ethical dilemmas and challenges while working for the betterment of their system. What dilemmas Mr. Sachin must have faced? How an officer should build his/ her resilience to fight from the challenges accompanying his/ her job?

13.9.2 Dilemma in Wagon Allotment

Mr. Suresh Raj was posted as a Divisional Operations Manager (DOM) in Jabalpur Division. Suresh was known for his integrity. He was very keen to serve the Indian Railways in an upright manner. In his area of jurisdiction, there were many cement industries in a cluster. All these industries used to work under stiff competition. These industries used the service of Indian Railways in transporting the manufactured cement to the markets in major cities of Delhi and Mumbai.

Indian Railways allot wagons to these industries for transporting their finished products to the markets. These wagons are allotted on the basis of first come first serve policy. The wagons are allotted to the company which has registered at the earliest date among all. Being a cheaper and faster mode of transportation then the road transport, there was high demand for wagons in the Jabalpur area.

Around 6 companies applied for the allotment of wagons. However, a company X was eager to get the agreement for using the railway wagons. For this the company used fowl means like paying bribe to the railway officials. It also offered Rs 5 lakhs to Mr. Suresh for allowing it to use the service of railway wagons. However, its date of registration for allotment of railway wagons was not the earliest among all.

A Senior DOM met Suresh and advised him to allot the contract to X Company. The reason he cited was that the cement being transported by this company will be used by the Delhi government for constructing expressways over there. Thus, the proposal of company X falls under the exceptional rules of Indian Railways. Sr. DOM also pressurized Suresh to anyhow give the contract to this company.

After hearing this, Suresh allotted the wagons to the X Company. He did not even verify the authenticity of the exceptional rules quoted by the Senior DOM.

Q. Do you think that Suresh took the right decision? What were the ethical dilemmas he faced in this situation? How would you have reacted in this situation and what would have been your strategy in this case?

13.9.3 Case of Uneconomical Commercial Facilities

IRTS officers are responsible for providing commercial facilities at the railway stations. Many local politicians approach them for providing facilities like accelerators in the railway stations of their locality.

Mr. Rajan Seth was posted as a Senior DCM in Nagpur. The railway station of Ramtek Tehsil came under his jurisdiction. The MLA of Ramtek was a very active figure. He won elections after a stiff competition and wanted to increase his popularity among the local public. In his election manifesto, he promised to construct accelerators in the railway station of Ramtek. Apart from this, he also promised to construct other modern facilities there.

After winning the elections, the MLA approached Mr. Rajan and asked him to construct accelerator in the railway station of Ramtek. Rajan very humbly accepted to study the proposal. However after studying, Rajan found that Ramtek is a very small railway station where very less trains stop. Moreover, a major railway station of Nagpur is nearby. People of Ramtek use this railway station only to travel to the Nagpur railway station. Thus, constructing accelerators in Ramtek was not economically viable and was without any firm logic. Accelerators should be constructed in higher earning railway stations only as Indian Railways is a self sustaining entity. Considering the facts of the proposal, Rajan denied to accept the request of constructing accelerators at Ramtek railway station.

However, this led to a lot of political pressure on Rajan and to his subsequent transfer to North East Frontier Railways.

Q. What ethical dilemma did Rajan faced in this situation? What would you do sin his place?

Hint: Consult the Senior DFM and ask him to point out financial irregularities in the proposal. Ask the Sr. DFM to give a remark that the proposal is not economically viable. In this manner, you will give a ‘technically correct’ decision.