Marketing

Indian Railways Growth, Sustenance and the Leap Forward A Case Study

Ankit Gupta, 2003CS10153 Vidya Bhat, 2004BB50025 Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi May 1, 2007

Abstract Indian Railways (IR), which was declared to be heading towards bankruptcy as per the Expert Group on Indian Railways in 2001, is today the second largest profit making Public Sector Undertaking after ONGC. A case study on IR could focus on multiple facets - Detailed analysis of the turnaround, Critical Appraisal of these strategies, Sustenance of this growth, Role of organizational structure of IR etc. In this case study we look at only certain aspects of IR due to the constraints such as limited time. We first do a brief diagnosis of the strategies that were behind the turnaround of Indian Railways. This is a very well studies and documented area so we move on further to probe two particular questions pertaining to IR. First, we study the marketing strategy of the Indian railways among the masses so as to counter threats like Low Cost Airlines. Secondly, we focus on the major question of Privatization of IR which has been lingering around for quite a while now. We do a comparative case study with the privatization of British railways and then justify the model of privatization that is slowly being adopted now for IR.

Contents

1 Introduction 2 The Turnaround Story 2.1 2.2 2.3 Capacity Enhancement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Capacity Utilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Revenue Enhancement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 2 3 4 4 7 8 8 9 10 11

3 Marketing Indian Railways to the Masses 4 Privatization of Indian Railways 4.1 A study of Privatization of British Railways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.1 4.1.2 4.2 Privatization Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....