New Delhi: Expressing concern over
"enhanced" loading in wagons which could potentially lead to
damage of rail tracks, a Parliamentary committee has
"cautioned" the Railway Board to desist from taking any
indiscreet action without conducting a proper study.
"The carrying capacity of wagons should have been
enhanced only after undertaking a proper scientific evaluation
and detailed feasibility study, the Public Accounts Committee
said in its report presented in the Parliament today.
"The committee would also like to caution the Railway
Board to desist from taking indiscreet actions which may cause
injudicious harm to rail infrastructure in future," it said.
Headed by Gopinath Munde as its chairman, the committee
felt that improved performance in prevention of wagon
overloading can be achieved if the Railway Board emphasis on
taking a more focused action for augmenting their technical
surveillance through weighing instruments.
While observing that "illegal" and "clandestine"
overloading beyond the permitted enhanced limit is rampant, it
urged the Railway Board to ensure complete computerisation and
networking of weighing and freight collection operations as
also to prevent overloading and leakages.
It further underlined the need for railways to take more
preventive steps rather than collecting punitive charges as a
deterrent to overloading.
It said, as a consequence a plethora of adverse impacts
like increase in rail fractures and weld fractures had
severely hit railway tracks on Central and South Eastern
Railways.
The panel also rued that investment in developing railway
infrastructure is not commensurate with the robust growth
railways witnessed over the years.
PTI
