Avataran: The Seven Missions of Indian Railways

In the Railway Budget 2016-17, the Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has announced 7 activities to be conducted in mission mode under the umbrella of “Avataran”. These missions are as follows:

Mission 25 Tonne

• It aims to increase revenue of Railways by augmenting the carrying capacity.
• To achieve this, 10-20% freight loading will be done through 25-tonne axle-load wagons in 2016-17 and target movement of 70% of freight traffic on high axle load wagons by FY 2019-20.

Mission Zero Accident

• The mission comprises two sub-missions.
• Elimination of unmanned level crossings: The target is elimination of all unmanned level crossings on Broad Gauge in the next 3-4 years. This will reduce deaths due to accidents and would improve throughput of the network.
• TCAS (Train Collision Avoidance System): A new technology has been developed to equip 100% of the High Density Network with TCAS in the next 3 years. It will prevent head on collisions and also improve throughput with increasing average sectional speeds.

Mission PACE (Procurement and Consumption Efficiency)

• Mission PACE is aimed at improving procurement and consumption practices to improve the quality of goods and services.
• Several optimum usage practices such as Vendor Managed Inventory, direct procurement of HSD, new procedures for identification and disposal of scrap, etc. will be adopted.

Mission Raftaar

• Mission Raftaar aims at doubling of average speeds of freights trains as well as increasing the average speed of superfast mail/express trains by 25 kmph in the next 5 years.
• Over the next five years, all loco hauled passenger trains will be replaced by DEMU/MEMU.

Mission Hundred

• Under Mission 100, at least a hundred sidings {siding refer to low-speed track section / track branch distinct from a running line} will be commissioned in the next 2 years. The current siding policy would be revised to elicit greater private participation.

Mission beyond book-keeping

• By establishing an accounting system, outcome will be tracked to inputs. Right accounting would determine right costing and hence right pricing.

Mission Capacity Utilisation

• Under the mission, a blueprint is prepared for making full use of additional capacity created through two Dedicated Freight Corridors between Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata which are scheduled to be commissioned by 2019.

All the seven missions will be headed by a Mission Director, who directly reports to the Chairman, Railway Board for a timely targeted delivery. The Mission Directors will be supported by officers from each Zone/Production Unit/RDSO/Centralised Training Institutes. Each Mission will have annual outcome based performance targets.