Modi 3.0 Cabinet: Ashwini Vaishnaw to lead railway ministry again as safety and punctuality remain major concerns

The bureaucrat-turned-politician was appointed as deputy secretary in the office of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2002 when the BJP had an alliance with the BJD.

The 53-year-old Rajya Sabha member from Odisha earned praise not only from the prime minister but also from his cabinet colleagues on many occasions.

A Master’s in Technology from IIT Kanpur and MBA from Wharton, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP was an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and had secured All India Rank 27 in the UPSC exam in 1994 from Odisha cadre. He went on to serve as District Collector of Balasore and Cuttack districts.

Born on July 20, 1951, at the remote Doddamaralavadi village in Kanakapura taluk of Ramanagar district, Somanna has served as minister since 2009, holding the portfolios of housing, municipal administration, urban development and higher education under various chief ministers. He has also served as deputy leader of the Opposition in the Assembly.

Somanna has had stints in JD(S), Congress and now BJP. He has played a key role in strengthening the party’s base in the state. He is known for his political acumen and his ability to connect with people from all walks of life.

Railways Industry in the country

Indian Railway (IR) has had a decade of some big projects, and yet on some fronts, not much has changed. While Vande Bharat trains have cut travel time and given a facelift to the IR, recent accidents have exposed that much more needs to be done for safety.

In FY24, India witnessed 25 consequential train accidents: six collisions, 13 derailments, and six fires in trains, taking the lives of around 400 people and injuring another 1,000.

According to a Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report, 69 percent of accidents were due to derailments caused by issues like track defects, incorrect loco-piloting, engineering and maintenance issues, and operational errors.

Apart from safety concerns, the IR is also plagued by a high operating ratio. The operating ratio is a benchmark of internal efficiency that measures operating expenses against revenue and is an important marker for the railways. The lower the ratio, the healthier the IR's finances are.

However, not all is gloomy in the railway sector in India. The government has awarded contracts to procure 800 WAG 12 electric freight locomotives and 400 Vande Bharat Trains for an estimated cost of Rs 1.2 lakh crore over the next eight years.

Apart from these, the IR has outlined a plan to invest Rs 1 lakh crore in procuring 7,000-8,000 new trains in the next four to five years to address the growing demand in the passenger travel sector.

Challenges facing the new railway minister

The new railway minister will oversee the execution of several important initiatives in the Centre’s 100-day agenda, such as overhauling capacity and safety infrastructure, bringing bullet trains to India, and improving the digital user experience with a super app.

The new government’s policies on railways may see a higher focus on areas like direct employment generation for the national transporter, which had been outsourcing non-core jobs over the past decade to keep its rising pension bills in check.

Another project on the agenda is the completion of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link project.

The new Railway minister will also have to take steps to increase the average speed of the Indian Railways and install its Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) aka Kavach across the railway network.