Audit Reports

Railways

Overview

This Report contains the audit findings of significant nature detected during the compliance audit in Ministry of Railways (Railway Board) of the Union Government and its field offices for the year ended 31 March 2013. The Report contains five chapters. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction of the audited entities; recoveries made by Ministry/ Department at the instance of Audit; remedial actions taken in response to audit observations made in earlier Reports; summarized position of Action Taken Notes. Chapters 2 to 5 present detailed findings/observations under the relevant department title.

In Indian Railways (IR) bulk commodities such as coal, iron ore etc are transported loose and required to be weighed at the originating station by weighbridges, en-route or at the destination points to plug the leakage of revenue and also to discourage overloading of wagons. Railway Board has emphasized that all loading points should be covered by weighbridges for weighment of all rakes. Audit, however, observed that out of 1176 loading points, 759 do not have their own weighbridges. They were largely (65 per cent) dependent on privately owned weighbridges for weighment especially for bulk consignments such as coal, iron-ore etc. There were deficiencies in the proper up-keep and maintenance of the weighbridges. Performance of these weighbridges was not being regularly monitored. This led to risk of revenue loss in carrying freight.

The Maha Kumbh Mela 2013 was celebrated from 14th January to 10th March 2013 at Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh. North Central Railway assessed that about 34 lakh pilgrims would utilize the train services during the Mela period. To handle the large rush of pilgrims, the three Zonal Railways (North Central,Northern and North Eastern), impacted by the Mela, made special arrangements for the pilgrims such as running of special trains, provision of safety and security of passengers and provision of other basic facilities. Audit observed that Railway Administrations failed to establish proper coordination with the State authorities for crowd management at Allahabad station including diversion of pilgrim rush from the Allahabad station. This led to build up of huge crowd at Allahabad station. Lack of proper management in movement of special trains was also noticed during the Mela period. To ensure safety and security of passengers, adequate deployment of security staff is essential. However, shortfall of 33 per cent in the deployment of security staff was noticed. On the day of Mauni Amawasya, this problem was further accentuated as there was a shortfall of 48 per cent noticed at Allahabad station.

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• Index
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Overview
• Chapter 1 – Introduction
• Chapter 2 - Traffic - Commercial and Operations
• Chapter 3 - Engineering – Open Line and Construction
• Chapter 4 - Electrical – Signalling and Telecommunication units
• Chapter 5 - Mechanical – Zonal Hqrs/Workshops/ Production units
• Annexures