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TamilNadu
16:06
CBI frames charges in Rs.4000 Crore Railway Freight scam
CBI frames charges in Rs.4000 Crore Railway Freight scam
CBI blows the lid off freight scam in railways. Four cases registered against railway officials and firms involved in freight scam
The investigation agency registered three cases in Tamil Nadu and one case in Maharashtra against unknown officials of Railways and private firms. In the first case, the Southern Railway officials in Mangalore manipulated the in-motion weigh bridge installed at Panambur Yard by modifying the software programme causing a wrongful loss of around Rs 20.72 crore to the Railways.
In the three cases, which were registered at Trichy, Tuticorin and Salem in Tamil Nadu, the railway officials fraudulently tampered with the installed Railway in-motion Electronic Weigh Bridges in Tamil Nadu causing losses to the tune of several hundred crore to the exchequer.
A senior CBI officer said that at Trichy, the railway officials manipulated in-motion weigh bridge – that took place between 2012 and 2014– and 64 rakes of goods trains were overloaded and sent by a private company, who was a bulk transporter of cement. At Tuticorin, the case was registered pertaining to the alleged fraud committed by a private company which installed the equipment at Melivattan village.
“A private company which was a bulk transporter had got several tonnes of excess goods transported using the same modus operandi,” the officer said. He also said that the third case was registered pertaining to the alleged fraud committed by a private transport company in connivance with the weigh bridge equipment installation company at Salem.
The fraud had occurred since 2011 and several rakes had been found to carry excess weight causing loss to the Railways. The probe agency had in April carried out checks after they received inputs and found that several officials had manipulated the software for weighing goods wagons resulting in loss of revenue.
The officer said that in 2012-13, Railways had ferried 1,008 million metric tonnes of freight and earned Rs 85,262 crore through it, which constituted 67 per cent of the total revenue for the period. The goods are required to be weighed at the originating station or en route to or at the destination point with a view to plugging the leakage of revenue and to avoid overloading of the wagons.
The officer said inputs were received that this system had been manipulated at several places in such a way that overloading was concealed and weight of the wagon was shown to be within the permissible limit.
A CBI release said a wrongful loss of Rs.20.72 crore was caused to the Railways by showing lesser weight of wagons through manipulation of the software at the Pananmbur yard.
As detailed in earlier Express reports, the epi-centre of the scam was the Tiruchirapalli Goods Yard which was sealed in February this year after the CBI filed an FIR. Apart from an engineer of the private firm, Senlogic Automation, which installed and maintained the electronic in-motion weighbridge, the cement major Ramco Cements was also named in the February FIR filed by CBI.
The company’s cement clinkers were weighed at the Tiruchy yard before being sent to their plant in Ariyalur.
According to the FIR, the software of the in-motion weighbridges were tampered to show lesser than actual weight of goods transported through wagons.
According to the CBI, the manipulations at Tiruchy yard had taken place during the period from 2012 to 2014 and 64 rakes of goods trains were overloaded.
Apart from Pananmbur and Trichy, the CBI has also registered cases pertaining to similar frauds at Melivattan in Tuticorin and Salem.
The fraud was allegedly committed by a private transporter company in connivance with the weighbridge equipment installation company at both locations.
Sources said it is suspected that the alleged manipulation was done through collusion amongst railway officials, private vendors and freight operators.
CBI suspects that highly sophisticated methods were also used to manipulate the software. The agency also suspects losses of Rs 4,263 crore may have been caused going by figures of 2012-13 alone but are probing under-reporting of weighment of past three financial years, sources said adding that almost two-third of the revenue of Indian Railways’ comes from freight earnings.
Railways had in consultation with Research Development and Standards Organisation (RDSO) installed 200 ‘Electronic In-Motion Weigh Bridges’ at various locations across the country to weigh the freight in transit. Six vendors have been roped in by RDSO for setting up the bridges, which automatically measure the weight of goods train wagons passing through them at a speed of 15-km per hour, sources said.
