Yardsticks for Gazetted staff in Construction Projects for the year 2023-24: Railway Board

Yardsticks for Gazetted staff in Construction Projects for the year 2023-24: Railway Board Order dated 15.12.2023

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA/ भारत सरकार
MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS/ रेल मंत्रालय
(RAILWAY BOARD)

No.2020/E&R/3(1)/1

New Delhi, Dt 15.12.2023

The General Managers,
All Indian Railways & others

Sub: Yardsticks for Gazetted staff in Construction Projects for the year 2023-24.
Ref: Board’s letter No.2020/E&R/3(1)/1 dated 20.07.2022

1. The issue of yardsticks for Gazetted staff in Construction Projects for the year 2023-24 has
been considered in the Board’s office.

2. Ministry of Railways (Railway Board) have decided that the yardsticks for operation of posts of Gazetted staff in construction projects for the year 2023-24 shall be as follows: –

Yardsticks for the year 2023-24 (Fig. in Crore of Rs.)
Post	Civil	Electrical including RE	S&T	Accounts	Stores
1	2	3	4	5	6
SAG	204.10	107.04	92.87	647.20	702.54
JAG	77.76	40.76	35.39	423.07	267.57
SS	29.23	15.27	13.28	123.76	94.98
JS/Gr. ‘B’	19.42	10.20	8.83	97.27

0.1. Yardsticks for HAG Post

a) Yardsticks for HAG posts for Civil and Accounts departments for 2023-24 will be Rs. 963 Crores and Rs.2423 Crores respectively.

b) For HAG posts of other departments, no separate yardsticks are being prescribed. The existing practice of operation of one post in HAG out of three or more admissible posts of SAG will continue.

0.2. Yardstick for operating the post of CPD in RE Projects

a) Yardstick for operating the post of CPD in RE Projects for the year 2023-24 shall be Rs.197 Crores.

3. In case of BOT/BOLT Projects: –

a. For determining SA grade and JA Grade posts, 100% of the likely outlay during the year in the Project may be taken into account.

b. For posts in Jr. Scale and Sr. Scale, 50% of the outlay may be taken into account. Operation of the posts should be strictly need based.

c. All other conditions in Board’s letter no. F(E)I/95/Misc./Yardstick/5 dated 13.10.95 will remain unchanged for BOLT/BOT Schemes.

4. The yardsticks indicated above are in terms of the annual gross outlay for all the departments except for the Stores Department. In case of Stores Department, in view of closure of COFMOW w.e.f 31.3.2023, the calculation of weighted outlay may be taken as under:

Weighted outlay for Stores Deptt. (Con.) of a Railway : (Outlay for M&P)+ (Outlay for S&T, Electrical & RE – Cost of materials procured by S&T, Electrical and RE Deptts.) + 0.6 x (Outlay for Civil Engineering Deptt. – Cost of track materials etc. procured by Civil Engg. Deptt.)

5. Ratio of JS/SS posts:

a. In departments other than Accounts, the total number of Senior Scale and Junior Scale posts will be determined by taking these posts together and not separately.

b. In case of Civil, Electrical and S&T departments, the ratio of posts of SS to JS normally should be 1:2, which can be relaxed upto maximum limit of 1:1, depending upon the discretion of the GMs. Hence the formula to calculate these posts shall be as follows: –

No. of SS Posts x Yardstick for SS + No. of JS Posts x Yardstick for JS

= Total outlay

c. In case of Stores Department, the ratio of SS to JS posts will be 1:2.

6. For all works, the expenditure likely to be incurred during the year should be considered for working out the required Gazetted establishment. Mere availability of outlay should not be the only basis for such a calculation.

7. As regards the projects where work has to be taken up on the basis of matching contribution from the state government like ROBs, RUBs, MTP etc., outlay on only such works where formal firm commitment of acceptance of the works and the contribution has been confirmed, should be taken into account.

8. Railways should not take into account outlays for the works which stand transferred to MRVC/RVNL/RailTel or other PSUs. Only in cases where execution of a work or part thereof vests with the zonal railways, should the commensurate outlay be added for working out the number of admissible posts.

9. In the case of Deposit works, outlays are only to be reckoned provided the money has actually been received and only to the extent of the expenditure likely to take place upto 31.03.2024. However, in some cases where the state Govt. or the agency may have given commitment even if the actual deposit is less, merits of such cases may be considered.

10. In the case of ‘turn-key’ projects, 25% of the outlay should be taken for determining the admissible Gazetted posts. However, as a dispensation for J&K turnkey projects in view of special circumstances, 50% of the outlay for SAG/JAG and 25% of outlay for SS/JS posts should be taken, subject to the condition that this provision should not result in additional SAG posts than existing at present i.e. on 30.06.2023 in the project.

11. Operation of Gazetted posts against Open Line works/ individual posts should be undertaken subject to availability of plan outlay in the year, with the provision that not more than 50% of the outlay should be utilized for operation of posts, in any year.

12. Operation of posts in survey organization should also be linked to outlay and yardsticks for respective departments as stipulated in Para 2.

13. The yardsticks may not be applied separately to individual projects, some of which may be more complex and intensive supervision oriented than others, but if necessary, the same may be made applicable to a basket of projects for a railway or a unit as a whole. It will be the responsibility of GM/PHOD to post and distribute the work taking such factors into account to ensure quality level of planning and supervision for individual works.

14. All projects would be governed by these yardsticks. Any earlier dispensation stands withdrawn.

15. The latest prescribed limits of D&G (renamed as Departmental) charges in all Plan Heads have been advised vide Board’s letter No. 2022/E&R/3(2)/1 dated 28.12.2022 & 12.01.2023.

16. Overall expenditure on Gazetted establishment should be within the Departmental charges (earlier D&G charges). The expenditure on JTAs/STAs, Project office support service agency/ General consultants for technical support/assistance in office management should be charged to Departmental charges of the project. Even in projects where Project Management Consultants (PMCs), Project supervision Services Agency (PSSA) are engaged, the cost of PMC contract, PSSA contract, other office management contracts as detailed above along with the departmental manpower cost taken together should be within the stipulated Departmental (earlier D&G charges).

17. After working out the admissible number of posts as per revised yardsticks & guidelines as above, a further cut of 10% is to be applied on the no. of Gazetted posts as a measure of economy.

18. The Gazetted posts should be utilized in the projects/basket of projects against which these are sanctioned.

19. No new work charged posts should be created for the year 2023-24 at the level of Zonal railways/PUs. Further, as per MoF’s instructions, for creation of SAG & above level posts, Cabinet and for creation of below SAG level posts, Finance minister would be the Competent Authority. Also, for continuation of SAG & below level posts, DoE and for continuation of above SAG level posts, CoS (Secretary (DoE), Secretary (DoPT) and Cabinet Secretary) would be the Competent Authority. Accordingly, all cases of creation/continuation of work charged posts should be referred to E(GC) Directorate of railway Board in terms of Board’s letter No.2019E(GC)16-7 dated 30.12.2022 for approval of Competent Authority, as applicable.

20. This supersedes all earlier orders in this regard.

21. This issues with the concurrence of the Finance Directorate of the Ministry of Railways.

(Sanjeev Kumar)
Executive Director (E&R)
Railway Board

Source: Indian Railways