Grobogan - Director General of Railways of the Ministry of Transportation of the Republic of Indonesia M Risal Wasal, emphasized the importance of the entire Baperka team to be experts in their respective fields. Expertise is the key to the sustainability of an organization in the future, moreover the Railway Maintenance Center is expected to soon transform into a Public Service Agency (BLU).

This was confirmed by the number one person in the railway sector, during a visit conducted at the Ngrombo Workshop, Railway Maintenance Center, on Friday (26/5/2023). "As soon as BLU (must) have professionalism, you are indeed experts in repairing trains, be experts in that field, public relations experts in the field of journalism, experts in their respective fields," said the Director General of Railways.

Coming with Secretary of the Directorate General of Railways Joko Murdyono and top officials within the Directorate General of Railways, the Director General of Railways was welcomed directly by the Head of the Railway Maintenance Center, M Andi Hary Murty and all staff.

On that occasion, Risal Wasal invited the ranks of the Railway Maintenance Center to work professionally. "Prove it, it's simple, if you are capable, so we are sure to assign Baperka, friends only need to focus on the tasks given, continue to improve skills, no need to think about remuneration, there are already experts calculating remuneration, ensure team performance can be achieved according to target ” explained Risal Wasal.

"As soon as BLU, become (a) CEO (Chief Executive Officer), demand yourself to have good standards, change yourself, I have to force my friends to be smart, for matters of welfare it is the duty of the leaders," explained the Director General of Railways.

In the discussion forum, Risal Wasal sparked a lot of information about the Railway Maintenance Center from the Baperka Team, specifically regarding work capacity in asset management work for maintenance workshop facilities and railway facilities entrusted to the Balai. While exchanging ideas, the Director General's method for exploring the potential of the Railway Maintenance Center was apparent, which he did in attractive and interactive ways with the Baperka Team.

Several times the Director General threw questions ranging from light matters to complex matters to the forum, resulting in interactive two-way communication. He did this to get various direct inputs from the spearhead team implementing the maintenance policy for the railway sector.

As the key informant at the discussion forum, the Director General moved seats many times, sometimes in the front in the style of attacking the Baperka team who dared to respond to the Director General's questions, then stood moving in the middle of the room to give several responses, then suddenly sat in the back seat blending in. with other participants while listening to the explanation of one of the participants who came to the front of the forum, stood up again pulled one of the participants into the middle of the forum to ask questions, soon moved again to the front, sat at the end of the table on the left side of the room, and was seen asking for a pen and write down a few notes of observations on a piece of paper.

Many messages were conveyed by the Director General of Railways in an effort to boost the performance of the Railway Maintenance Office, the key is strong expertise and analytical competence. Time and time again Risal Wasal provides examples of analytical work that is important to be carried out on railway maintenance work. One example is the Director General talking about the management of the Makassar-Parepare railroad.

The Director General reminded Baperka's readiness to maintain the railway facilities in Makassar-Parpare. This includes knowledge about risk management for the management of railway facilities and infrastructure, including knowledge for calculating maintenance needs based on the burden arising from the management of the railway transportation that is held on it.

"Prepare the knowledge, the task of friends in maintenance is to analyze the risks of using railway infrastructure, when railroad facilities that pass over the railroad tracks are given several loads, how many tons of logistics transport, study the risks, and calculate the capacity of the facilities needed, approximately can rent how many flat carriages to meet the transportation needs?”, said the Director General of Railways while giving an analogy of the transport load that is above the railroad facilities by swinging a box of packaging over his cellular device.

The Director General reminded the importance of the planning stage, "convey a technical review proposal for Facilities (Railways) throughout Indonesia, especially for BLU interests, from here it must be able to compete with corporations, especially when fast trains will operate," said the Director General of Railways.

The top leadership at the Directorate General of Railways also gave instructions to be able to prioritize the Balai at the fundamental level of expertise first, namely how to sharpen maintenance skills at the Balai and how to become the operator of all railway facilities. "If you need to call in experts from abroad, that's the job of friends to increase competence, do it independently, how can all resources be used, how are they used? There is a team that is placed in the maintenance work area, you need to think about it from upstream to downstream, you have to think boldly," said Risal Wasal giving direct instructions.

Apart from the maintenance work, there is one thing that is interesting to mention by the Director General, namely the management plan for the Jebres Surakarta KRL Depot by Baperka. The Jebres KRL Depot is an additional asset after the Depok KRL Depot which was previously handed over from BTP Jakarta to Baperka. For this reason, the Railway Maintenance Office is required to take on a role not only as a Depot manager, but also to have the expertise to operate maintenance equipment with control of the Depot installation inherent in it.

Complementing the directives of the Director General of Railways, the Secretariat General of Railways spoke a lot from the side of compliance with the administration of meeting the Balai's performance targets. "Consistent with the RPD, now there is SAKTI (application), focusing on absorbing the budget, so that Balai's direction is on the track," explained Joko Murdyono.

In line with the direction of the Director General, the Secretariat General then re-emphasized Baperka's commitment to becoming a BLU. Secretary Directorate General asked Baperka to pay attention to fulfilling the substantive requirements and technical requirements as BLU. "The way to do this is by changing your mindset, strengthening regulations, everyone has to understand exactly what's going on, I'll do it myself (the treatment) instead of working together, where's the advantage? arrange service rates by calculating unit costs, expertise costs can be included in one of the components”, explained the Directorate General giving directions for improving performance for Baperka.

Observing the directives of the Director General of Railways and the Secretariat General of Railways, Head of the Railway Maintenance Center M Andi Hary Murty, conveyed several efforts that had been made as an effort to increase the capacity of the Railway Maintenance Office, one of which was in the form of a proposed change or improvement of ministerial regulations relating to the organizational structure of the Railway Maintenance Office which This will be followed by a more detailed mapping of positions and personnel requirements.

"Mr. Director General mentioned a lot about the importance of specific technical expertise in all fields of work, especially for the management of maintenance work and the use of SMN, for this reason several things have been done, mapping the need for maintenance experts, accompanied by implementing competency improvement training, in collaboration with stakeholders. the railway sector," said Andi in response to the direction of the Director General of Railways during a discussion session at the Loko Diesel CC 300 Hall, the Ngrombo Workshop building.

On the other hand, the work sector related to the use of railway facilities has been seriously worked on since the last year, and will continue to be improved in the future. Both in the form of promotional work to various stakeholders in line with the work direction of the Director General of Railways which has been submitted to the forum. As well as the preparation of work structures and mechanisms that are continuously being refined to suit the needs in the field so that they can be applied quickly and easily in the work area.

The agenda was the Director General of Railways' first visit to the Ngrombo Workshop. Risal Wasal did not miss the opportunity to inspect all the workshop facilities accompanied by the leadership of the Railway Maintenance Office. Activities are still carried out by prioritizing work safety, by wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) facilities, by wearing helmets and safety vests.

In fact, the field inspection activity was the first agenda that he carried out upon his arrival at the Railway Maintenance Center area at around 15.30 WIB. The tour was carried out starting from the office area, the Director General walked side by side with the Secretariat General and the Head of the Railway Maintenance Office, heading south towards the heavy equipment warehouse. Not a single means of special equipment railways missed by him. Once the Director General was seen paying close attention to the iron wheels attached to the Vaia Car Excavator. The Tadano Crane aircraft which was stabling on the east side of the warehouse was approached by the Director General, followed by several questions asked to the Baperka Team.

The railway facilities at the Railway Maintenance Center did not escape the attention of the Director General one by one. From the heavy equipment warehouse area, the group then shifted north to the main maintenance facility for the Ngrombo Workshop railway, in a building with a blue double-curved roof construction.

During coverage on the ground, the Echelon I official at the Ministry of Transportation was seen stopping for a while near the Bridge Inspection Car (BIC). BIC is a special equipment facility that has the form of a tronton truck transportation mode with a crane facility behind it, for various maintenance purposes for railway infrastructure and other construction functions.

BIC was seen stabling on the second rail line in the Ngrombo Workshop building facility. The Director General looked at the details of the BIC while listening to the Baperka Care Team's explanation of the facility's maintenance history.

The visit agenda and field review activities took place in an effective, safe and orderly manner. Almost all the existing railway facilities at the Ngrombo Workshop were seen by the Director General of Railways. Not only looking at the railway facilities, in the workshop area, Risal Wasal had time to enter the materials engineering workshop facility on the west side of the workshop building. Not infrequently the Director General of Railways was seen communicating and interacting several times with the implementation team on duty at the material workshop.

Ending his official duties, the Director General of Railways took time to take a group photo after the discussion forum, providing motivation and directions in front of the entire Railway Care Center team. The photo is set in the Loko Diesel CC 300 Hall on the second floor of the Ngrombo Workshop. The Director General did not forget to convey an important message to always maintain integrity, fortify oneself so that fraud does not occur in the work environment. The agenda of the visit lasted for about three hours, the group arrived at the Ngrombo Workshop location after the ashar time of Grobogan, and then departed back to Semarang after having the opportunity to lead the evening prayer in congregation at the Railway Care Center prayer room. (yogo)