The Indian Railways are the nation's Life Line and the principal mode of transport in the country serving 684 million people. Its network spans over 61,230 Kilometers throughout the length and breadth of the country though there still exist certain pockets not linked by the rail. The main objective of Railway planning has been the development of rail transport infrastructure for carrying the projected quantum of passenger and goods traffic. The concept of Railway development working has not however been restricted to profit making only. The Indian Railways are called upon to perform the dual role of a public utility service and a commercial undertaking simultaneously. This dual role imposes on the Railways, on the one hand the obligation to meet the transport requirements of all sections of the community in conformity with the socio-economic objectives and on the other hand the necessity to generate adequate revenues to meet the total expenses of running the enterprise. The management of the Indian Railways is controlled and directed by the Railway Board under the overall supervision of the Union Minister of Railways assisted by a Minister of State and/or a Deputy Minister. The Railway Board exercise all the powers of the Central Government in respect of regulation, construction, maintenance and operation of the Railways.
The objective of audit of railway transactions by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India is broadly to (i) ensure the regularity and propriety of expenditure and (ii) evaluate the efficiency cum performance of the various functions such as Railway operation, execution of works/projects, purchase and inventory management, railway freighting etc.
The review of the coaching services was planned to highlight the shortage of passenger coaches and inadequacy of passenger services both under suburban and non-suburban sections in the context of the steep increase in passenger traffic since 1974-75 and the difficulties faced by the passengers. The audit plan was prepared carefully after conducting a preliminary survey of the records, reports and all relevant material as well as inspection of two important passenger terminals and on the spot survey of the overcrowding and queuing at the booking windows at the suburban and non-suburban stations of a big city. Based on the information so collected, detailed guidelines were issued to the field units about the aspects to be seen in audit. Special emphasis was laid on (i) inadequacy of coaches due to defective planning (ii) large numbers under repair (iii) inadequate provision of funds for maintenance (iv) inefficient utilisation of available numbers and (v) problems of travel as seen by Railway passengers and efforts made to overcome them. The reports and material received from the field units along with the points and data collected by reviewing the records in Railway Board were collated and analysed and audit review drafted. The comments of the Railway Board thereon were also obtained and the final report prepared incorporating these comments. This performance review was included in the Audit Report (Railways) of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India for 1980-81. The review was also considered by the Public Accounts Committee after taking evidence of the Railway authorities and certain recommendations made for effecting improvement in the coaching services. The salient points brought out in the audit review and the recommendations of P.A.C. that emanated therefrom are, in brief, as follows:-
There was incorrect appreciation of the growth of passenger traffic and requirement of coaches for both non-suburban and suburban traffic over a period of years. As against the projected growth of 4% per annum for non-suburban and 5% per annum for suburban passenger traffic, the actual growth rate was 11% per annum and 7.5% per annum respectively. The coaches provided covered only 1.5% per year on the non-suburban section and 4% per year on the suburban section. The Railway Board admitted before the Public Accounts Committee that there is paucity of coaches and inspite of running many overaged coaches and those due for overhauling, shortages prevail. The working group projected a growth rate of 3 to 5 percent and planning was based on it. Even this basic minimum need for providing coaches and those to be replaced could not be met owing to shortages in the capacity of production. Even this lower optimum level of production could not be achieved in view of curtailment of funds provision. The
P.A.C. recommended that a comprehensive study should be conducted immediately with regard to intercity travel keeping in view the new growth centres that are rapidly emerging in the wake of growing industrial/economic activity all over the country so that the next five year plan can be realistically based. They also recommended augmenting the production of coaches and terminal facilities by stepping up the allocation of resources in order to improve the efficiency of service as well as safety of the passengers.
Effective utilisation of even the available coaches was found to be lacking. The target norms for repairs and spare coaches were 14 and 12.5 per cent respectively. But the actual percentage of coaches under repairs or awaiting repairs itself was between 19.9 and 22.5 percent thereby reducing the number of spare coaches for attachment to trains to relieve over-crowding. The repair and maintenance facilities at the workshop were inadequate. The workshop capacity fell short of the annual arisings greatly. The gap increased over the years as adequate attention was not paid to expansion of workshop and shed repair facilities. Coaches sent for periodic overhaul had to wait for days to get entry inside workshop. Lack of security arrangements, coordination between the operating, security and mechanical department led to pilferage of fittings such as fans, dynamoes etc. from the waiting coaches. Further coaches with deficient fittings detained from the rakes at their base terminal and maintenance depots could not be put back within the prescribed schedule of 12-24 hrs. The Public Accounts Committee while expressing great concern over the failure to ensure speedy repairs and maintenance facilities in pace with the increase in the number of coaching stock, recommended that priorities should be fixed for all new schemes and in respect of ongoing schemes the deficiency made good, to the extent feasible within the shortest possible time.
The review also pointed out that there is substantial scope for making available more coaches for passenger services by reducing their existing idle time or lie-over period of rakes. It was suggested that by standardisation of the coaches in the rake and rationalisation and intermingling of the rakes for use in the mail and express services, the availability of coaches for traffic could be improved. The P.A.C. upheld this suggestion and recommended that apart from this, a review of the
washing .and maintenance facilities for the coaches at the terminals should be undertaken urgently with a view to improving and modernising the same.
The difficulties of travelling public in getting reserved accommodation were mainly due to non-observance of prescribed rules and procedure by the railway staff working at the main reservation offices of the originating stations. The Public Accounts Committee drew attention of the Railway Board to the fact that this is an area where the travelling public comes into contact with the Railway staff at the cutting edge level and more often than not the experience of passengers is quite unsatisfactory. It also stressed the need for streamlining the procedure for reservations and other steps to improve the service. The Railways have since taken certain effective measures to improve the reservation system.
The Audit review also pin pointed on the heavy losses incurred in the coaching services, drawing attention to the main factors contributing thereto viz., paucity of coaches, ticketless travelling mainly in overcrowded trains which in turn was due to shortage of coaches, stoppage of ordinary passenger trains at all stations leading to higher operational expenses etc. Besides, the fares specially of suburban season tickets were kept historically much below the cost of operations. After hearing the explanation offered by the Railway Board, the Public Accounts Committee recommended that apart from short-term measures to ensure optimum utilisation of the available assets, it is necessary for the Railways to prepare a perspective plan covering the period upto 2000A.D. for integrated development of the railway infrastructure in terms of line capacity, technical capacity, coaching stock, motive power and other ancillary facilities. There should also be realistic projection of traffic growth on the basis of pasi experience and long term plans chalked out for meeting the demand.
The 'action taken' reports subsequently received from the Railway Board, indicated that the need for correct assessment of traffic growth and requirement of coaches as well as to augment the capacity of workshops and sheds to keep the coaches in healthy condition has been recognised and for this purpose increased plan allocations made in the budget for the succeeding years.