He couldn't do it to Bihar. But Laloo has made the railways shine.
Laloo’s Rail Yatra
***What did the minister do to turnaround Indian railways?
Refused to hike fares. Shored up earnings by carrying more
passengers and freight.
Increased the load carried by a goods wagon from 81
tonnes to 90 tonnes. This gave an additional earning of Rs 7,200 crore.
Upgraded tickets if seats were going vacant in the upper class. So,
waitlisted passengers could be allotted seats.
Maintained passenger profile so that bogies could be taken off or added to trains according to seasonal demand.
Not an advertisement for good grooming. A stained spittoon next to him. Posing for pictures in the trademark ‘ganji’ (vest). And making absurd statements like "Floods are good for Bihar as the poor get to eat fish which swim into their houses". This is the Laloo that the media has been lapping up for long—politically shrewd but a bucolic buffoon. And yet Laloo Yadav has surprised many by emerging as one of the top performing ministers in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s cabinet. He is being credited for the impossible—the turnaround of the monolithic Indian railways. From being notoriously in a "terminal debt trap", the railways under him has shown additional earnings of Rs 15,000 crore in 2005-06. In the process, it has become the second largest PSU profit-earner after ONGC. So much so, a team from IIM Ahmedabad came to study the spectacular turnaround.So, as the Union railway minister, what has Laloo done that others before him could not? The explanation lies in his down-to-earth attitude and rustic wisdom. Laloo puts it in his inimitable style: "My mother always told me not to handle a buffalo by its tail, but always take it by its horns. And I have used that lesson in everything in my life, including the railway ministry."Laloo says he approached the ministry like a common man with no technical expertise. "I was clear about one thing—I would not increase passenger or freight fares. It did not require rocket science to understand that the railways could increase its earnings by carrying more passengers and freight. The solution lay in increasing volumes and not the cost," he says. After taking a few faltering steps initially, Laloo was quick to realise that he needed a pointsman in the ministry. He chose a Bihar-cadre IAS officer, Sudhir Kumar, as his officer on special duty (OSD) and gave him a free hand to execute his ideas. A Delhi School of Economics alumnus, Kumar also holds a degree in business management. He has given a professional and workable shape to Laloo’s earthy ideas. Kumar’s excitement is almost childlike when he talks about the "turnaround". But he credits all of it to his boss’ genius. Laloo, he says, not only thinks out of the box but also takes bold decisions. According to his officers, Laloo’s inherent brashness makes it easy for him to take risks. "He has not taken any step that was not known in the railways. Other ministers dithered over various policy changes which could have brought additional revenue. Quite unlike them, Laloo went ahead and took those risks, but in an extremely calculated manner. He also placed complete trust in his officers, and did not at all hesitate in delegating responsibility and powers," explains an aide.One of Laloo’s most controversial decisions was to increase the load carried by a goods wagon from 81 metric tonnes (MT) to 90 MT. His logic: "If you do not milk the cow fully, it falls sick." He reasoned that wagons were being overloaded anyway—and hence subjected to risk of accidents—and the money being pocketed by corrupt officials.
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