The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) will now take a call on the merger of RailTel Corporation of India (RailTel) and Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). The Indian Railways has sought the DIPAM’s view, said officials. “The decision about IRCTC and RailTel has been left to DIPAM because it concerns listed entities,” said one of the officials, who did not wish to be identified.
The proposal to merge the two entities is based on the recommendations of Sanjeev Sanyal, a former principal economic advisor in the finance ministry, who is currently a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Committee. The railways wants to ensure that the merger of the entities, which operate in different areas, should not create fresh issues that could impact their operations and be a cause of concern for investors, said a second official privy to the deliberations. “Both have very different operational areas, with RailTel slowly growing its footprint in the broadband space through RailWire and data centre leasing,” said another official.
Sanyal had last year given a host of suggestions for restructuring the national transporter to make it leaner and more efficient. A key focus of his suggestions was minimising overlaps within the operations of the Indian Railways. In September last year, the Railway Board decided to implement these suggestions and it has to furnish a monthly progress report to the cabinet secretariat. Another recommendation, about the IRCTC taking over the operations of Central Railway Information Systems (CRIS), is also with the DIPAM. But there are concerns within the railways about the takeover since the CRIS has a wider role within the Indian Railways, as it facilitates operations of procurement, freight operaions information systems, track management systems, among many other core functions, unlike the IRCTC, which is a profit oriented entity dealing just with e-ticketing and catering.
The railways has implemented some proposals, including shuttering the Indian Railways Organization for Alternative Fuel.
Sanyal had recommended closure of the Central Organisation for Modernisation of Workshops (COFMOW) and Central Organisation for Railway Electrification (CORE), which are being implemented.
“COFMOW will be closed next year (2023-24) while CORE will be closed down in phases,” a senior Rail Ministry official said.
