Indian Railways: Indian Railway Traffic Service Association (IRTSA)
Indian Railway Traffic Service Association (IRTSA)
When Railways first started in India, it was part of Public Works Department. Initially the building of network was contracted to Companies and later on British Government itself started developing the network as State Railways. The expansion of Railway network was high on priority of British. With this high growth of Railway network and increasing traffic, the British Government recognized the need for a separate department for handling train operations.
As per the record available in National Archives of India, "the whole scheme of traffic superiors establishment of 1889 was sanctioned by Secretary of State (notes, Railway Establishment A- Nov 1902 Railways 6 to 13)"’. Unfortunately records of the period from 1889 to 1901 are not traceable and so the actual details of formation of separate traffic department could not be found out.
After 5 years, the Board was worried that changes were required to be done in the mode of recruitment and training as "it is a matter of notoriety that the Traffic Department of State Railways are very weak at the present time and we may sympathize with the desire of the Board to bring about some improvement and the Board are distinctly of opinion that unless definite steps are taken to improve the class of men and their surroundings during their period of probation, great difficulty will be experienced at no distant time in finding suitable officers to fill the higher positions in the Traffic Department." (first paragraph of the Secretary, Commerce and Industry Department’s note of the 14th March 1906)
Future of IRTS
Over the last few years Indian Railways has been riding on
the crest of boom in the Indian economy. The originating freight loading which
stood at 587 million tonnes in 2003-04 is now expected to reach 785 million
tonnes in the current financial year. The approximate growth in this period has
been at a level of 50 MTPA.In the XIth Plan period, the growth is expected to be
at a level of 80MTPA with the Railways targeting a freight loading of 1100 MT by
the terminal year of the XI th Plan.
These unprecedented growth rates in an infrastructure sector have been made
possible only through a paradigm shift in the working ethos of the Railways.
Gone are the days when investment decisions were being made without any
correlation to the returns. Reduction in unit cost of operations, PPP, enhanced
load running, freight discount schemes, MIS, proliferation of FOIS, COIS, TMS,
UTS, privatization of container business etc are the new buzz words in the
Railways. Focus on timely completion of throughput enhancement works; additional
procurement of rolling stocks and rationalization of examination procedures of
rolling stock is now being given top priority.
Important Links:
Contact Details:
IRTS ASSOCIATION
Ministry of Railways
Rail Bhawan
New Delhi
Tel: 91-11-23074460
Website: http://www.irts.org.in
Courtesy: IRTS