Two major undertakings of Government of India may soon indulge in a row on the issue of transport of coal by freight train from Charhi station of Hazaribagh district. A freight train having 59 bogies is standing at Charhi Railway Station of Hazaribagh district since Monday and no coal has been loaded yet.
Transport of coal from Charhi Railway Station has started a few months ago and as per our sources CCl has given the tender of transportation of coal to Ms Godavari Constructions which had loaded 47 bogies coal for the first time from this station.
Since then railway has earned about Rs. 37 crores by transporting coal from this station.
Recently new tender was made and finally CCl itself decided to transport coal and as per railway sources on their order freight train of 59 bogies reached Charhi and is standing yet as no coal is available here.
The railway sources said that according to the new freight rules of Indian Railway there is a provision to impose fine on the party concerned who had demanded for freight train or bogie.
If the party fails to load the bogie for more than 5 hours then the party will have to pay Rs. 9000 per hour delay fine. The fine gets doubled after 3 hours. It has been made must that the bogie should be loaded within 5 hours time. Here the freight train is standing since last about 48 hours so as per rules the railway will certainly impose fine as per its laws and it will be in lakhs per day.
On the other hand GM CCl Charhi area said that they have not given any written order to the railways to provide freight train for transportation of coal so the question of paying fine doesn’t arise. He accepted that CCl has not dumped coal at Charhi siding for transportation yet and added that since there is no coal there so it is beyond imagination that anyone among us has given the order to provide freight train to railway authorities.
Thus the background is ready, on one side railway officials are talking about fine and on another side CCl is saying that it has not demanded freight train. Who is right and who is wrong will come out when the matter will go into the courts of higher authorities. Meanwhile the freight train is standing empty at Charhi Railway Station and railway is losing money because it could have been used anywhere else.