Taking note of the large number of train parting cases due to faulty centre buffer coupler (CBC) components, a parliamentary committee has made critical observation for the delay by railways in taking corrective measures to identify and resolve the issue.
The Public Accounts Committee in its latest report has deplored the failure of the Railway Ministry to determine exact revenue losses from train decoupling incidents and relying on mere assumptions.
The CBC is a mechanism for connecting rolling stock in a train. Whenever any portion of a train while in motion becomes detached, a parting occurs and results in loss of section capacity by way of disturbance to train operation, detention, and consequential financial loss to the Railways.
The committee noted that though train parting cases have been reduced from 996 cases in 2006-07 to 403 cases in 2013-14, the figure is still quite high in terms of consequential losses and resultant inconvenience of bunching of other trains.
The PAC headed by Congress MP KV Thomas has found the lack of suitable mechanism to assess the losses and delay in taking punitive action against defaulting manufacturing firms.
The committee has asked the Railways to devise suitable methodology for calculating the revenue losses due to train parting incidents at the earliest and recommended that the said methodology should conform to the standards observed by the audit.
Audit reviewed the freight train parting cases and found that a large number of train parting cases due to manufacturing defects of OBC components only. It was also found that the manufacturers of the components could not be identified in a large number of cases.
According to the reports, 260 train parting cases happened between 2006 and 2011 due to manufacturing defects of CBC components.
The committee feel that due to lacunae in the existing system of inspection, a large number of defective CBC components from a particular manufacturer got inducted into the Railways.
The PAC was surprised to find that Renuka Industries Limited, a firm delisted from January 2006 to March 2007 for supplying defective OBC component, continued to supply railways with defective items for another three years from 2010 to 2012 before it being downgraded.
The PAC asked railways to maintain figures of losses on account of train partings along with the details of steps taken to address the said losses due to CBC failures.
