‘Blame railway body for high-speed train delay’

MUMBAI: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has held ‘deficient planning’ of Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) responsible for the nonprocurement of high-speed bogies for suburban locals that are capable of running at the speed of 130 kilometre per hour. Its report, tabled in Parliament on July 17, pointed out that in the procurement of expensive bogies under Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP), the ₹42.57 crore allocated for the same was blocked for years.

The CAG report pointed out that MRVC awarded contracts for the procurement of highspeed bogies from Siemens Transportation System, Austria without assessing the availability of the required infrastructure for conducting oscillation trials.

The report also pointed out that the failure of the contract for procurement of high-speed bogies for EMUS (suburban locals) has also resulted in nonachievement of intended objectives related to reliability, safety and maintenance in the suburban network under the MUTP.

The report states that this resulted in blocking up of the capital of ₹42.57 crore for more than four-and-half years on account of the cost of train shells costing ₹20.68 crore manufactured by ICF (Integrated Coach Factory of Indian Railways) and ₹21.89 crore payments made to the company.

RS Khurana, chairman and managing director of MRVC, said they have recovered the entire fund from the company. “Whatever payment was made to the company in Euros has been recovered in Euros and whatever payment made in Indian Rupees has been recovered in Rupees,” he said. According to the report, MRVC did not respond to its queries till February 2017 end, but the MRVC chief refuted this claim.