Let us play the game — Train 18, 19, 20…. or 18, 18 and 0,0,0……..

Dear (To whom so ever it may interest),

A month and a half later, I am no longer angry, disillusioned or losing hope! I realized that I should have already lost hope by now and it was now only a matter of realization. These articles are helping in the realization …….

a) Facing favouritism charges, Railways introduces fresh tender system for Train-18. (http://www.railnews.in/facing-favouritism-charges-railways-introduces-fresh-tender-system-for-train-18/).

b) Chinese Companies May Enter Race in a Big Way for Vande Bharat Manufacturing )https://thewire.in/government/chinese-companies-may-enter-race-in-a-big-way-for-vande-bharat-manufacturing)

I have no reason to doubt the contents of the articles, hence I continue….

What does these articles say :

a) Production of the third Train 18 unit virtually stopped.  — READ — Dead before starting — The parts of the first two were ordered together in the first attempt, and based on trains performance the journey was to be taken forward — but the next steps have been halted!

b) Specifications provided by RDSO (Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO), Lucknow, which functions as a technical adviser and consultant to the railways,) were not followed by the ICF during manufacturing of first Train 18 set. — READ — Approval to be taken from an organizations which has till date not designed anything and has no rolling stock designs stand to its name — Diesel Locomotives (General Motors, ALCO), Electric Locomotives (ABB, Hitachi, Siemens and even BHEL), Coaches (ICF, Schelerin, LHB — IR-X and IR-Y never took off), — only success to its name is in designing wagon bodies with Casnub bogies (which are to a US design).

c) Department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) red-flagging the process. A vigilance enquiry underway at the Integral Coach Factory. — READ — Minister of Railways is also the Minister of Commerce (Head of DIPP). There are only two ways that such enquiries end up — i) Find something to prove what the boss says (create something or misinterpret something and award blame for putting a comma in the wrong place)! And if you cannot find something delay and delay (finish off someones career) and finally give a clean chit (when the boss retires). The system is not designed to catch the thieves — thieves are always smarter than the police!

d) Allegations of favouritism in the tendering process of the first train set — a domestic private firm was allegedly favoured in the procurement process for electrical equipment for the train set. — READ — DIPP’s flagship program is “Make in India”, and its officers are fighting for a level playing field for Indian Vendors, as Indian Public Sector prefers imports. And now someone favors(if it favors) the domestic firm and delivers….. and we do not like it…. Do we want to Make in India or provide a level paying ground in India to foreign (Chinese) firms? It is actually bureaucratically safer to keep howling Chinese government gives unfair advantages to its firms rather than retaliate and play an aggressive game, and be blamed for favoring an Indian Firm (a matter of national pride) but at the risk of favoring a national firm.

e) ICF has been sanctioned to manufacture 40 Vande Bharat train sets over the next three years – 10 in 2019-20 and 15 each in the next two years.  AND The Railway Board in a recent meeting with top officials and leading manufacturers of propulsion systems discussed the new timelines to invite wider participation. READ — for 40 Vande Bharat train sets, and with 18 vendors participating, there would be plans of 4-5 different technologies to be simultaneously running in the organization, how does that sound?  If you select one there is favoritism, if you select many there is not enough volume for any one — The existing vendor rejected the repeat order when quantities were reduced significantly….

f) An official said, “We want to offer a level playing field to all suppliers to participate in the making of these trains which will not only have high quality but (will be produced with) much greater transparency.” — underway.

For the last– some quotations from Indians who have achieved success in delivering technology using public sector systems — Let us take two exemplars — Mr. R.C.Sinha (of Mumbai-Pune Expressway fame) and Mr E Shreedharan (Konkan Railway and Delhi Metro fame) — Some notable excerpts — But mind it — These seasoned public servants have gone on record saying these things (they have gone ,

Mr. R.C.Sinha’s way of working

• “They realized that in a commercial system, some amount of risk has to be taken.:
• “Technical evaluation of these tenders (55) were completed in about 7 days time and it was found that slightly less than half the number of contractors did not meet the tender qualification criteria.”
• “I accepted the findings and recommendations of the Technical Committee, without any modification”
• “evaluation of tenders estimated at Rs. 633 crores and issues work orders within a period of 13 days ” — 1998 Value
• “This offer was rejected on the grounds of “not workable” and “not responsible tender” and the work was assigned to the second lowest contractor.”
• “All those reasons, which could be the cause for delay, were eliminated and MSRDC took upon itself the role of coordinator and  facilitator. “

Mr. Shreedaran’s way of working

• Critics could say that his plans were not prudent or that some of his actions were downright illegal.
• They(contractors) began the work earnestly without even a shred of paper to show for confirmation of their contracts.
• Inviting tenders for construction on a property which had not been released from due process technically made for operating outside the law.
• Not all contractors were invited to tender for the jobs.
• To make a major variation in cost and contract: Sreeram’s apprehensions were about the approval and budget needed for the additional work. He told Shreedharan so. ‘That should never be an issue. Let me worry about it.”
• “Shreedharan and his team did not adopt a policy of strict adherence to the book. “
• When inflation was skyrocketing, the contracts were renegotiated.

It is easy to see that the projects that these stalwarts delivered were not delivered in the conventional way in which we understand fair, equitable and transparent manner.  Fairness, equity and transparent are important, but subjective judgement and noble intentions lie above that. Aspects of timely and under cost delivery of Train 18 stands for both sound subjective judgement and noble intentions — 18 months from design to delivery and Rs 97 crore per train!

Only three concluding points:

i) Natural justice argument: Inquiring into past decisions with a broken lens (with no emphasis on delivery and instead use of rule book procedures for checking transparency, fairness, and transparency) is against natural justice as delivery is being kept out of the evaluative matrix.  If an inquiry is to be done, put on the lens of Mr. Sinha and Mr. Shreedharan (salient points identified above) for a pear to pear comparison.  An evaluation of the executed instructions with conventional public sector measures of transparency, equity and fairness is in itself a non-transparent, non-equitable and an unfair evaluation!

ii) Competency argument: No time is lost, and there is also a precedent now — Let us put in a new system of tendering and deliver the 3-6th rake of Train 18 in 18 months — Let us say December 2020. Let us say who in this organization takes this up as a challenge! Of course, if achieved we can scrutiny both the efforts on similar transparency, equity and fairness parameters — We will have a pear to pear comparison.

iii) and lastly, the pragmatic approach: Post-mortem is done on a dead man — imagine what would happen if you do a postmortem on a live person. Hopefully, the same would not happen when you do a post-mortem of Train-18 files — It is fine if you do not want to revive it!

I am fine with all three, you can take your pick…..

(Full context of the above excerpts is reproduced below — with exact references.)

BACKGROUND MATERIAL: 

ONLINE NEWS ARTICLE: Facing favouritism charges, Railways introduces fresh tender system for Train-18. (http://www.railnews.in/facing-favouritism-charges-railways-introduces-fresh-tender-system-for-train-18/)

Facing favouritism charges, Railways introduces fresh Tender System for Train-18

SOURCE FOR Mr. R.C.Sinha’s Quotes:

Article available on line at multiple places…

This article is a transcript of a lecture delivered by Shri.R.C.Sinha, Former Addl. Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra and Vice- Chairman and Managing Director, Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation Limited on March, 25, 2000 in  a lecture series on “Ideas that have worked” organized by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Government of India in collaboration with Civil Services Officers Institute and Government of Andhra Pradesh. The invitees for the lecture series mainly were officers to Government of India, Members of the Civil Services Officers Institute, diplomats, CEOs of selected public sector undertakings, industrialists, researchers and trainers, some invitees of the Government of Andhra Pradesh and a selected group of media personalities.

Page 4: The Board of Directors approved  the appointment of the technical consultants, fully realizing that in case the required  clearance is not obtained from the  GoI MoE & F, the entire expenditure on technical consultancy will become infractuous. They realized that in a commercial system, some amount of risk has to be taken.

Page 5: 133 tenders were sold and 55 tenders were received on 18.12.1997. Looking at the capacity of the contractors, tenders provided that not more than one section will be assigned to any contractor. Technical evaluation of these tenders were completed in about 7 days time and it was found that slightly less than half the number of contractors did not meet the tender qualification criteria, as had been prescribed in the tender document.

Page 6: The consultants with the help of the Chief Engineer did the technical evaluation and it was evaluated by the High Power Steering Committee consisting of officers from MSRDC and outside technical experts. A combined report was submitted to me in my capacity as MD. I accepted the findings and recommendations of the Technical Committee, without any modification.

Page 7: The Board of Directors in its meeting held on 31.12.1997 approved the proposal and work orders were issued on1st January 1998. It was a great achievement on our part to do evaluation of tenders estimated at Rs. 633 crores and issues work orders within a period of 13 days. It is also to be noted that our tender estimate cost was Rs. 632.54 crores and the tender amount was Rs. 627.85 cores. One of the projects where the estimated cost and tender amount came very close to each other with 10% and a saving of about 5 crores.

Page 6: However, no Writ Petitions were filed and no stay orders given in any of the projects of MSRDC. The other problem that was faced by us was when one of the contractors for Section “D” quoted a price, which was so low that the consultants, the High Powered Steering Committee and myself were convinced that it was not at all workable. This offer was rejected on the grounds of “not workable” and “not responsible tender” and the work was assigned to the second lowest contractor.

Page 7: All contractors were of the opinion that with a project of this magnitude and complications  involved, it would take not less than 48 months. The contractors further stated that a lot of their time was spent in obtaining the different permissions, sanctions, provisions and the non- availability of land for the construction. This causes delays as during these periods work comes to a standstill.

Page 8: The use of the modern machinery has been made compulsory. It was estimated that the project would need about 8000 KVA of power. MSRDC entered into an agreement with MSEB and paid the amount for putting up 8 Electric Sub-Stations on the alignment to ensure smooth availability of power supply. Similar payment was made for shifting of high tension power lines both to MSEB and Tata Power Supply. For the construction of the Expressway, 300 crore litres of water is expected to be consumed. Water sources on the alignment were identified and blanket permission obtained from the Government for the use of water from these sources for construction purposes, except one used for drinking purposes.

Page 9: Lands were also identified for offices of contractors and PMC to be by the side. In short all those reasons, which could be the cause for delay, were eliminated and MSRDC took upon itself the role of coordinator and  facilitator. To perform the role of coordinator and facilitator, the staff had to be extremely motivated  and as the work started the whole staff right from the lowest to the highest level geared to top level of performance. They accepted the challenge of doing the work of quality and in time. They were made to develop a sense of pride in their performance and feel part of history being made in the construction industry. Extremely motivated staff and officers of MSRDC, consultant and contractors became the biggest asset of the whole system.

Page 9: The bills submitted by the contractors were to be verified within 10 days of receipt and sent to MSRDC for payment. The tender document stipulated that payment will be made within 7 days failing which MSRDC shall be bound to pay interest to the contractor.

Page 10: I would like to add here that MSRDC also decided to reimburse import duty on specified machinery and also foreign exchange fluctuations on the same.

Page 15: Decisions taken in these meetings were noted for implementation and there was no need to further confirm these decisions. The on -site meetings enable even small thorns to be removed.

Page 20: The last in milestone is more important and in case contractor achieved last milestone within time i.e. total completion, it was agreed that penalty paid by contractor for non -completion of intermediate milestone would be refunded.

A Book on Mr. Shreedharan — A bipgraphy by R Ashokan 

Excerpts from Book available online at https://www.amazon.in/Karmayogi-Biography-Sreedharan-Ashokan/dp/0143425307/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=shreedharan&qid=1563613860&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Pg 135—Critics could say that his plans were not prudent or that some of his actions were downright illegal.

Pg 131 – At start of the Konkan railway project, ” Sreedharan met with a few contractors who had been working with the railways in mangalore. He let them know that the paperwork would take a couple of months more to finish at the office of KRCL, but they had to get to work right away, Now, this was a not a practice the railway was known for. Quite possibly, this would invite audit objections. Knowing Sreedharan’s methods and style of functioning, however, the contractors, on their part trusted him completely. They began the work earnestly without even a shred of paper to show for confirmation of their contracts. If, so far, they had been doing business ranging in lakhs of rupees, this time they were undertaking projects of the order of crores of rupees, staking everything they had, solely based on their trust in Sreedharan.”

Pg 135 – “Inviting tenders for construction on a property which had not been released from due process technically made for operating outside the law. Those who had learnt to prize the value of time would agree that waiting forever, on the other hand, could be no less foolhardy. However, groups with special interest could very well criticize Sreedharan’s approach to legal technicalities and block his mission, which we have seen as recently as with the Kochi project, where the devious collusion of such forces got them tactical victories”

Pg 145 – Sreedharan and his colleagues knew that a project of this nature depended heavily on the contractor’s performance. ….. Not all contractors were invited to tender for the jobs.

Pg 147 – “Decisions were taken on the spot when it was so required. The fast and ambiguous directions that came as a result of the process Sreedharan had set in helped accelerate the project’s progress. P.Sreeram, who had been with Shreedharan since 1970, recalled an incident during  his time in Konkan. Construction of a major tunnel was on, and the work progressed, the machine got struck in a huge rock. Sreeram explained the situation to the CMD, who happened to be at the site. There was no option but to stop the day’s work, except if another tunnel was bored to remove the day’s work, Sreeram suggested. “Then we are doing it,’ Sreedharan said. Sreeram was not sure when he could start working on the second tunnel. ‘Right now!’ Sreedharan responded as though this question should never have been raised. Sreeram’s apprehensions were about the approval and budget needed for the additional work. He told Shreedharan so. ‘That should never be an issue. Let me worry about it. What’s worse would be halting the work. Time is precision. Do not delay. Let’s begin.’ As soon as Sreedharan finished his sentence, the machinery began to hum and charge to work. That was Shreedharan’s style of functioning.”

Pg 148 – “Shreedharan and his team did not adopt a policy of strict adherence to the book. “

Pg 148-149 “For instance when inflation was skyrocketing, the amount paid became insufficient for the contractors  who were working on a few tunnels. Having been convinced of their arguments validity, shreedharan agreed to review their rates. In the larger interest of the corporation, though, he negotiated with them. On certain occasions, he had to go beyond the agreements in the original contracts. However, none of those actions raised a single doubter’s brow.”