Railways Delayed Tenders For 24 Projects By Over Eight Years, Finds CAG
CAG finds delays in planning and execution of railway electrification projects.
Eight years and 257 days: That’s the time Indian Railways took to invite tenders for two dozen approved projects to electrify tracks.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has found several such instances of delays in planning to execution of 36 electrification projects it reviewed, according to a report tabled in Parliament on Friday. The delays led to cost overruns of up to 76 percent, it said.
Citing specific examples, the CAG report said that the time taken for sending the estimate by the zonal railway and its approval by Railway Board ranged up to 59 months in 24 projects. “The objective of saving time for deciding whether or not to take up a section for railway electrification is not being fulfilled due to delays,” the report said.
The reviewed projects were audited between 2013-14 and 2015-16 and also included some that came to notice earlier but could not be reported in previous reports, CAG said. It selected 14 completed, 15 ongoing and seven new projects.
The Railway Board took up to 337 days to include 17 electrification projects in the annual works programme of the Central Organisation for Railway Electrification and 202 days for six projects of Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd.
It took 3,177 days to invite tenders for the two dozen projects assigned to CORE and 915 days for seven projects handed to RVNL, the report said.
On an average, 16 completed projects were delayed by nearly three years, leading to cost overruns. According to the CAG report, here’s what the delays led to…
- Costs overshot by 2 per cent to 76.6 percent in 14 projects.
- Parts of 12 projects were yet to be completed.
- Ten ongoing projects were 21-57 months behind schedule.
- Project savings of Rs 3,006 crore could not be achieved for 21 projects due to delays.
The railways, in its reply to CAG, said suggestions to fast-track tenders are acceptable and a separate set of instructions will be issued to executing agencies. Moreover, e-tendering has been implemented for tenders of CORE after March 24, 2017.