RPF to harvest modern technology to reduce coal pilferage

The Railway Protection Force (RPF) Monday said it has decided to harvest modern technology and increase coordination with Government Railway Police (GRP) to reduce pilferage of coal in transit.

While a loss of 0.8 per cent of total movement of coal through railways is permissible during transit due to various technical reasons, the actual amount lost during transportation is as high as 1.2 per cent, RPF Director General Arun Kumar told newspersons here.

He said that the 1.2 per cent loss during transit includes pilferage, apart from various technical reasons.

"Surveillance during transit will be increased by harvesting modern technology like using CCTV cameras in rakes," the RPF DG said after a meeting with officials of Coal India Limited, Central Coalfields Limited, SAIL, etc to discuss the loss of coal during transportation.

He said that closer coordination between RPF and Government Railway Police (GRP) of different states at divisional security commissioner level will be encouraged to ensure prompter action in stopping pilferage of coal.

"We discussed the loss right from starting points to unloading points, including coal sidings," he said.

Stating that security requires to be increased at coal sidings which are loading or unloading points, Kumar said that the main problems lie at places of loading coal on railway wagons.

Kumar said that some of these are traditional loading points where settlements exist and people there take coal from these places.

The RPF DG said that it was proposed at the meeting that checking of calibration of weighbridges be done once every six months, instead of the present one year period.

Claiming that theft of coal in transit has come down, he said "reporting of pilferage of coal is not always done, which is reflected in the recovery being higher than the amount reported."