The experiment of Railway Board, setting-up of Gati Shakti Units to speed-up rollout of big ticket infra projects seems to have hit a roadblock as things have not gone exactly as planned. Post review at the Board level, the Railways have trimmed the work sheet of Gati Shakti unit that were set-up with much fanfare across the length and breath of its network. The main factor that led to slowdown is the delays in land acquisition, one of the most ticklish area in the country. Now as a post facto correction, the Railway Board has reassigned the works under PH-30, which involved road safety work, mostly relating to construction of railway overbridges and railway under bridges (RoB/RuBs), especially where land acquisition is involved. As these works are now clubbed and scattered at various places, the Board has said Gati Shakti units should be divested of the task, In fresh directives of Zonal General Managers, the Board in a communiqué has said that fresh proposal of RoB should now again be entrusted to Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) or to Public Sector Units (PSUs) of Railway or joint venture with State Government. The CAO has full scale set-up at division level and the field units are well versed with local legal angles and can even hire private organisations to help with land acquisition.

  

Even RuB and Low Height Subways and Foot Overbridges (FoB) works should be assigned to local division with supervision of Sr Divisional Engineer of that particular section, the communique said. The CAO has been provided freedom to take the best possible decision, whether to continue with Construction Organisation or delegate these works to local division, with an aim to ensure faster completion of targeted works. Taking further critical view, the Avdesh Kumar Verma, Joint Director, Gati Shakti (Civil)-III, Railway Board, has also directed further analysis of the existing portfolio allotted to Gati Shakti Unit under PH-30. If needed some of the works with Gati Shakti can be diverted to other agencies so that current year target are achieved. Gati Shakti set-up was rolled out with targeted view of helping Construction Organisation speed-up the new line and conversion works. However shortage of manpower and to much duplication involved in entire process led to slowdown in the process.