Panel rakes up an issue with Railways

Pulling up the Railways for mismanagement and non-availability of rakes, which are used to transport goods, the Standing Committee on Railways has said that this had resulted in the diversion of freight traffic to the road sector.

The Railways should maintain complete transparency in allotment and the status of available rakes should be published in local dailies, displayed at stations and also through websites, it has said.

In its first report on the 'Demands for Grants 2004-05 of the Ministry of Railways', the committee has also directed the Railways to draw up a comprehensive perspective plan projecting growth of passenger traffic and capacity for the next five years.

The government had announced 54 pairs of additional trains in the Rail Budget for 2004-05, mainly on already congested routes.

Since the railway system is already under strain because of the paucity of funds for creation of additional infrastructure required for new trains, the committee said existing capacity should be fully utilised by introducing high- speed trains.

It also expressed displeasure over the under-utilisation of allocations for road safety works, particularly the construction of road overbridges and underpasses. The Railways had attributed this to non fulfillment of commitments by the state governments for construction of approach works.

The committee had suggested the Railways should consider utilising the amount accrued from diesel cess for construction of approach works. In the report, the committee has also said that in view of the wagon shortage, bogie couplers, which are used to join wagons, should be provided free of cost to wagon manufacturers during the current year.

The shortfall in wagon procurement was on account of higher steel and other input prices, which pushed up the cost of production beyond the contractually fixed prices.

Also, financial constraints in public sector companies and lock-outs and strikes in private wagon-building companies led to a shortage.

The committee asked the Railways to make efforts to augment their internal resources by following aggressive marketing strategies and to explore new and innovative areas. It has also recommended the Railways should make serious efforts to get traffic for higher leads.

Noting that the procurement of concrete sleepers had become a very sensitive matter, the committee recommended that the procedure for procurement should be streamlined and made foolproof.

Certain manufacturers had formed a cartel and tampered with procedures in order to keep new competitors out of the race, it said. Also, the skewed regional distribution of manufacturing units resulted in the Railways having to transport sleepers and incurring losses.

The committee has said that the losses should be enquired into by an independent agency.