The cabinet on Tuesday approved the downsizing of the Railway Board, which will have four members instead of eight, besides the chairman. All the various railway services as well as departments have been merged into a single entity.

Union minister Piyush Goyal feels the major restructuring will end the 150-year-old legacy of “departmentalism” that was marked by inefficiency.

Instead of board members for traffic, rolling stock, traction and engineering, the newly constituted board will have one member each for infrastructure, operations and business development, rolling stock and finance.

There will be some independent members with at least 30 years of experience at the top level in industry, finance, economics and management fields, the minister said.

All the remaining posts of the railway board shall be open to all officers regardless of the service to which they belong.

Indian Railways will now have only one cadre — Indian Railway Service — instead of the current eight services for various departments, including engineering, traffic, mechanical and electrical.

The railways will have a railway protection force and a medical service department, while all other departments will come under a common railway management system.

Insolvency law ordinance

The government will promulgate an ordinance to further amend the insolvency law to remove ambiguities and ring-fence successful bidders from prosecution for offences committed by previous promoters of corporates concerned.

The Union cabinet on Tuesday approved an ordinance to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016, that would also help in ensuring smooth implementation of the law, according to an official release.