A four-day nationwide exercise involving surprise checks conducted by CBI at 65 locations in about 20 States has led to the unearthing of a Railway freight scam which the agency estimates could be worth over a whopping Rs4,000 crore.
The agency is likely to register a regular case soon to investigate the scandal that involved under invoicing in freight carriage by the railways to the tune of Rs4,263 crore.
The checks conducted by CBI officials in assistance with the vigilance department of the Railways and digital forensic experts have revealed that a number of railways officials in connivance with private vendors manipulated the electronic in-motion weigh bridges (EIMWBs) to under report the freight carriage for private beneficiaries and inflicted losses to the exchequer.
Static and in-motion weighbridges are used by the Railways for weight estimation. The EIMWB has been developed by Research Development and Standards Organisation (RDSO). Around 200 such weighbridges have been installed by the railways at different locations throughout the country to weigh the freight in transit. RDSO has approved six private vendors for establishing EIMWBs. Goods trains passing at the speed of 15 km per hour are automatically weighed by this system.
The agency had received inputs that EIMWBs at several places were being manipulated in such a manner that overloading of the wagons is concealed and weight is shown within the permissible limit.
Officials suspected a highly sophisticated methodology of crime by manipulating the software of the system through collusion amongst railway officials, private vendors and freight operators. It is not only causing huge financial loss to the government exchequer, but also corresponding gains to private freight operators/private persons. It is even damaging railway tracks, wagons and adversely affecting railway safety, they said.
Indian Railways is the single largest transporter in the country for movement of freight across long distances. In 2012-13, the Railways transported 1,008 Million Metric Tonnes of freight earning Rs85,262 crore which constituted 67 per cent its total revenue earned.
“Even a 5 per cent under-reporting of actual weight of freight leads to a difference of Rs4,263 crore by 2012-13 figures,” an official said.
The CBI carried out the countrywide special drive beginning Friday at over 65 EIMWB locations involving major freight traffic points in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Jharkhand, Assam, West Bengal, Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Rajasthan and Gujarat. As many as 500 CBI officials were engaged in the exercise.