As new swanky rakes are being introduced by the railways as part of the first phase of Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP), the Central Railway (CR) and Western Railway (WR) are grappling with the shortage of key staff. The CR and WR are short of some 245 motormen and 185 guards.

Newsline had sought information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act on the sanctioned strength of motormen and guards in these railways from October 1, 2007, to December 20, 2008.

Information was also sought about the recruitment process, promotion and payscales of these employees. And according to the information obtained, the CR has 571 motormen as against a sanctioned strength of 716 while the WR has 330 motormen as against the required 440. Similarly, the CR requires 659 guards while it has only 572 in service.

The WR, meanwhile, has 319 guards as against a sanctioned strength of 417. The CR had promoted 93 guards during the period while the

WR got 61 new guards for the suburban section.

With the new rakes in place, the CR and WR will have 500 more services daily. “With the introduction of new services, the pressure on motormen and guards has increased, and it will continue to happen,” said a motorman. “We do not get our weekly offs and the pressure is intense.”

“Plus, the overtime (OT) is quite beneficial for the railway as it has to pay less for OT than new employees,” said Ramkrishna Badgujar, divisional secretary (Mumbai) of All-India Loco Running Staff Association.

It may be recalled that the motormen and guards had paralysed the suburban rail system from October 2008 to January 2009 by resorting to a strike. The motormen of the CR, too, had gone on a hunger strike later.

“The assessment and filling of running staff posts is a continuous process depending on the increase in train services. Recently, we have filled 50 vacancies in motormen cadre. The process is on to recruit 1,200 loco running staff through the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB),” said Shriniwas Mudgerikar, chief spokesperson of CR. The WR chief spokesperson, S.S.Gupta, also had a similar reaction: “Some 30 motormen have been added to the cadre recently. We have also increased the sanctioned strength in view of the new rakes coming in.”