CAG rap: Railway Ministry far from achieving targets

It further points out that despite a large number of projects being incomplete, the Railways introduced 103 new projects (61 new lines and 42 gauge conversions) during the last 10 years. ‘‘In 71 projects even firm dates of commissioning were not projected,’’ says the report adding that the Railway Ministry sanctioned projects without justification and took decisions during implementation without thinking about the original objectives due to which ‘‘the core objectives underlying the projects could not be achieved’’.

Out of the 87 new line projects analysed, a staggering 47 were pending between 5-10 years while another 16 were in the bracket of 10-20 years. Ten new line projects were found to be over 20 years old. Only 14 projects were found to be less than five years old.

Similarly, out of the 62 gauge conversion projects analysed, CAG discovered while 36 projects were between 5-10 years old, another 20 were between 10-20 years old. Only six projects were found to be less than five years old. The Railways failed to fix the target dates of completion for 46 new line projects and 25 gauge conversion projects.

The report says Railways have over the years selected financially unviable gauge conversions and new line projects and ‘‘107 out of 133 projects were taken up despite being financially non-viable’’.

OFF TRACK

• Of the 172 works introduced during 1999-2005 as New Services through Supplementary Demand for Grants by Railways and reviewed in audit, 77 had not even commenced one to five years after their approval by Parliament and only 29 completed up to March 2005.

• After obtaining ‘out-of-turn’ approval from Parliament during 1999-2000 to 2004-2005, Railways had not commenced construction of 50 out of the 67 road over/under bridges up to March 2005.

• As many as six works for which advances were drawn from the Contingency Fund of India could not be started after lapse of one to three years since their introduction.