Maintenance of tracks, rakes is the key: Study

Jul 28 2016 : The Times of India (Mumbai)   ManthanK Mehta    Mumbai:

Comptroller and Auditor General of Indian has laid bare the truth behind the poor suburban train services.It has found that the train services are running behind schedule and safety is being compromised due to poor maintenance of tracks as well as the Electrical Multiple Unit (EMU) rakes.

Suburban rakes are sent for maintenance to workshops for the Period Overhaul (POH) every 18 months. In a POH, the mechanical and electrical parts are serviced and commuter amenities--such as repair of defective seats and repaint--taken care of. The CAG report has raised questions about the quality of maintenance. It said, “Monitoring of quality of POH activities is essential to ensure that all deficiencies in the coaches are attended to before the coach is put into services. It was observed that 566 coaches (37 per cent) failed within 10 days of POH on WR.“

WR had sent a total of 3187 coaches for maintenance in 2010-11 to 2014-15. The number of coaches that failed within 100 days of POH on WR was 1610. CR had given 4172 coaches for maintenance in this period, of which 1462 failed in 100 days of POH and 392 in 10 days of POH. The CAG has pointed out that, “Failure of coaches within 100 days of POH revealed that POH carried out in workshops on CR and WR was not upto the mark due to poor workmanship. This fact was also reinforced by complaints (CR-200 and WR-566) lodged by passengers regarding defective, deficient facilities during journey .“