NEW DELHI: Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday introduced eight new reforms under its ‘52 reforms in 52 weeks’ to improve efficiency, encourage innovation and strengthen the railway ecosystem. The reforms will boost skill upgrade, freight services, construction ecosystem, and web-based tracking of the land acquisition process, among others.
As part of the reforms, a key policy is aimed at developing a highly skilled workforce of artisans for railway projects, with the objective of ensuring strict adherence to timelines while maintaining the highest quality standards.
Contractors and other agencies executing projects will now be required to deploy only skilled and certified manpower. “Artisan and workforce skilling reform will be implemented across all railway projects over the next 24 months,” Vaishnaw told the media.
He said railway infrastructure projects involve safety-critical operations requiring specialised skills, precision engineering and strict compliance with quality standards. “To ensure deployment of competent manpower, Indian Railways has introduced a comprehensive policy for skilling artisans engaged in railway projects and works.
The policy establishes a structured framework for identification, assessment and certification of workers engaged in critical trades such as welding, fitting, masonry and other specialised construction activities,” he said, adding that the Railways has implemented 17 of the proposed 52 reforms.
The ministry launched the web-based ‘Rail Bhoomi’ application to simplify and speed up land acquisition for railway projects in coordination with state governments. “The Rail Bhoomi app will significantly reduce the time taken to complete all procedures related to land acquisition,” Vaishnaw said.
Another major reform was the new wagon design policy aimed at promoting innovation and encouraging industry participation in designing specialised freight wagons. He said that under the existing system, wagon designs were primarily developed by the Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO), while several critical components were restricted to prescribed standards. This limited design flexibility and constrained innovation.