Indian Railways is in a watershed period in its history today and therefore drastic action needs to be taken in a number of areas to make this august organization the country's pride once again, says KK Nohria, President, The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India.

Indian Railways over the past decade has fallen into a vicious cycle of under investment, misallocation of scarce resources, increasing indebtedness, poor customer service and rapidly deteriorating economics. The overwhelming sentiment of The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) is that time has run out. Action is overdue. The imperative is to get started fast on a program of restructuring and reform.

Unfortunately, successive railway ministers have not paid too much attention on this aspect. On the other hand, none of the finance ministers have shown interest in the restructuring of Indian Railways. The inability of the Central exchequer to meet with the requirement of funds for Indian Railways could well be understandable from its own none-too-happy fiscal condition where the abnormal increases in its non-plan expenditure has left it with limited funds to spare for Indian Railways. Indian Railways is passing through a bad phase.

The ASSOCHAM strongly feels that the Government should bring it back to health. Increasing internal resource generation, rationalizing fares and freight; scrapping of unviable projects; support of funds for accelerated completion of remunerative projects and catching up with renewal and replacement work would nurse Indian Railways back to health. Indian Railways also requires a new vision.

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