An eg of how Comptroller & Auditor General of India give bamboo to Western Rly for heavy detention of BTPN wagons for 51164 days !!!!
Failure of Railway Administration to take action to augment storage capacity of Nandurbar fuelling installation resulted in heavy detention to oil tank wagons and consequential loss of earning of Rs.11.74 crore
Considering the difficulties in piecemeal movement of tank wagons and abnormal detention, Railway Board directed all Zonal Railways (July 1994) to undertake a review of the existing diesel loco fuelling installations and draw up a time bound...
more... action plan for augmentation of the storage capacities of fuelling installations where the requirement of HSD oil was sizeable so that at least half a rake can be unloaded at a time. As per existing orders, a standard rake contains 70 four wheeled tank wagons.
Audit scrutiny of Nandurbar fuelling installation of Mumbai Division, Western Railway revealed (March 2002) that the daily requirement of HSD Oil at this installation was approximately 70 kilolitres (KL). The total storage capacity since April 1995 was 560 KL. A four wheeled tank wagon contains about 22 to 23 KL. Thus at a time 24 to 25 wagons can be unloaded provided there is no fuel in the storage tanks. Rakes consisting of 22 to 47 HSD oil tank wagons containing HSD oil ranging from 506 KL to 1081 KL were regularly received at this installation. Due to non-availability of sufficient storage capacity and also due to the fact that despatch of wagons to this installation was not prudently regulated, almost all the wagons were suffering detention. However, no action was taken to augment the storage capacity as desired by Board in 1994. During the period May 2000 to March 2003, 116 rakes suffered a total detention of 51164 days (excluding 5 hours free time) resulting in loss of earning capacity of Rs.11.74 crore.
Thus, the failure of Railway Administration to take action for augmentation of storage capacity at Nandurbar fuelling installation resulted in heavy detention to oil tank wagons and consequential loss of earning of Rs.11.74 crore.
The matter was taken up with the Railway Administration and Railway Board in May 2003 and September 2003 respectively. Railway Administration with the approval of Railway Board stated in January 2004 that the augmentation of storage capacity of HSD oil was not considered because of impending work of electrification of Udhna - Jalgaon section. Moreover, considering other economics of rake movement, full rakes of HSD oil tank wagons were supplied instead of restricting the rake size to 9 wagons to match the decanting capacity at Nandurbar. The reply is not based on facts. In fact the oil was not being supplied in full rakes and, therefore, the so called economical advantage of supplying full rakes was not being achieved. Moreover, the supply was not regulated as per requirement and most of the times, fresh supplies were received even when the wagons received previously were yet to be decanted.
