Waterlogging in subways: Panel asks Railways to punish erring officials

NEW DELHI: Raising the issue of waterlogging in railway subways, the Public Accounts Committee, which is led by Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, has instructed the Ministry of Railways to take action against officials responsible for sanctioning projects with “poor” feasibility study.

In its 52nd report titled ‘Construction and Utilisation of Limited height Subway (LHS)', the House Panel has also questioned the railway ministry on why in several cases, the problem of waterlogging was noticed only after the funds to build the subway were spent.

“The Committee has recommended that those responsible for the sanctioning of such projects with poor pre-feasibility study should be taken to task,” it said, adding, “The Committee

was perturbed to note the silence of the ministry over the spending of nearly Rs 30 lakh in case of LH-51 in Nagpur Division where the senior section engineer (works) had noticed the problem of waterlogging after the amount was expended. The Committee has recommended fixing responsibility in all such cases.”

The construction of LHS gains importance as the Railways has given order that while all unmanned level crossings would be eliminated, they would be replaced by LHS to ensure free movement of people. According to an order issued in 2006 by the Railway Board, at many locations, the traffic consists of light vehicles, two wheelers which can be catered to by providing subways of limited height which are economical. Railway divisions were instructed to identify such unmanned/manned level crossings which can be eliminated by construction of ‘Limited use subways'. However, the committee found that many of these subways were waterlogged, especially during the rainy season.

The committee also said that the cases of waterlogging postconstruction and non-provision of drainage systems are part of a wider problem indicating “design faults” which is a “failure of the engineering department.”

The Committee has recommended that the Railways Ministry should use all available technology and revisit the design phase of all those LHS which are ‘non-gravitational' and a mandatory directive be issued to all concerned to ensure that the LHS is made ‘gravitational' at the design stage itself.