An Indecisive Indian

Was everyone sitting idle waiting for the transformers? Not at all. If Train 18 was our magnum opus, the transformer was the superstar, and if female, the prima donna. There were numerous actors and actresses hiding behind the diva. It proved to be a boon in disguise. Had the transformers come in September, a whole lot of equipment and components would still be undelivered or at least not installed. Would the train still have gone out in September? Difficult to say but I would think that any attempt to despatch the train, say a couple of weeks, earlier than when it was eventually readied would have been fraught with the risk of the quality taking a hit, what with the pressure of delivery on a phalanx of manufacturers. We were in September and panelling was far from ready, toilets were half done, forged and cast bogie components were very late in getting ready, the luggage racks were not installed, rubber components were a work in hand; the number of laggards was legion . My frequent, a...

Vande Bharat express, the first commercial service of Train 18, is doing great, notwithstanding hiccups like cattle getting run over and stone throwers breaking glasses. It has cut down travel time, clocking an average speed of more than 100 km/h, a quickness not seen hitherto on IR. It has provided the travellers a new travel experience. There is some criticism due to issues like lack of space for pantry and discomfort in seats; I am sure ICF will address these issues in the future rakes, if not in the second, in the third rake for sure. Yet, what amazes me no end is the regular query from people about the future of the train. I had always maintained the belief that train sets would arrive in India and would succeed; after all Indian Railways is not some aberrant entity with its own eco system, detached from the realities of the world. Departmental turf war, jealousy, procrastination, indecision, selfish interests, pretensions and sheer vanity may rule for some time but you cannot kee...

I keep digressing so much; I must come back to some core design and manufacturing issues. As I write, I am faced with a dilemma a novice chronicler would perhaps always face. What to write and what to ignore or eliminate? I am not intending to let this story be followed only by those who understand design and manufacture of railway coaches, or rather not merely that but engineering processes as such. So going too much into niceties of design and manufacturing would be too esoteric. I have, therefore, been trying to bring in design and manufacturing issues and solutions only in dribs and drab and that too in a rather cursory, not elaborate, manner. I am trying to build this narrative around a mosaic of all issues usually encountered while executing a project of this magnitude. Handling of human resources is always the key and that has taken precedence over knotty technical aspects in my story such that neither are diehard rail fans disappointed nor are those with wide interest in things...

What exactly is transparency? Transparency, as I understand, for a government organization dealing with public funds, or perhaps even in responsible business enterprise, is a culture of honesty and openness. But transparency sans accountability and delivery is meaningless; there is an equally important flip side and that is, the obligation to deliver. If use of public money must be done in a transparent manner, then it is also necessary that the purpose for which this money is being utilized is served well. It is easy to be transparent as long as it is divorced from delivery. It is also, perhaps, easier to deliver if there was no pressure of transparency. Merit lies in delivering while being transparent. In general, transparency is the quality of being easily seen through. A secondary connotation also refers to complete predictability, i.e., the output is entirely predictable from knowing the input. Since constructive and effective ordering of stores is not a computer game, if ...

My writings here are more like musings and so forgive me if it is rather disjointed. I am writing from my memory, not some notes that I or someone else kept taking. I have to strain my mind to remember stuff. Lady Macbeth , as she executed her devilish plots, expounded that memory, the warder of the brain, would be in a fume when plastered with alcohol; and here is mine, not plastered at all but in some fume all the time. By June end we knew that transformers were going to transform our delivery schedule negatively. Transformers form a part of the propulsion system of the train with one each employed in one basic unit, i.e., four in total. It was a new design. The model worked out by the manufacturer of propulsion and allied systems was to get the first five transformers from a firm in France and get them to manufacture the rest in, for 2nd rake onwards, in latter’s factory in Baddi in India. One of the five transformers was going to be tested thoroughly in the manufacturers’ premi...