Is Railway Ministry in election mode seeking project reports from zones?

Southern Railway (SR) had asked to collate the project details, mainly photographs and send a comprehensive dossier to the Ministry as early as last week.

DT Next has learnt from highly placed Southern Railway sources that the Ministry has sought division-wise details of projects completed from the zonal headquarters. Tiruchy, Madurai, Chennai, Palakkad and Trivandrum divisions had sent separate reports to the zonal heads by the middle of last week, but Salem, which was the latest division to be formed in the zone, was yet to report to the headquarters.

“The Ministry has strictly instructed zonal officials to avoid the usual publicity literature like the ribbon-cutting photographs of ministers. Instead, we have been asked to send photographs of actual works completed in the last four years. We were given a few days time to send the report to New Delhi. In fact, we were ordered to keep the report preparation high on our agenda,” a Southern Railway source privy to the development revealed, admitting that the Ministry was showing unusual haste this time.

Though it is regular for railway board to seek details of projects completed in various divisions periodically, the nature of content sought, the period it was asked for and the hurry shown by the Ministry suggests that the reports would be used for more than mere documentation, a Southern Railways officer reasoned.

Top brass in the Sothern Railway also conceded that the Ministry would use the division-wise raw reports from the zones and package a detailed achievement report of the Ministry at national or state level, whichever would serve the purpose desired by the government.

Going by the interaction with senior Southern Railway officers, the zone may have already sent its report to the Ministry.