New Delhi:
CBI has registered four cases -one in Karnataka and three in Tamil Nadu - in connection with alleged under-reporting of actual weight of loaded goods wagons through manipulation of software by Railway officials in what is suspected to be a Rs 4,000 crore scam.
Sources said a case has been registered against unknown officials of Southern Railway, Mangalore and other private firm in the matter of manipulating the in-motion weigh bridge installed at Panambur Yard of Southern Railway by modifying the software programme causing a wrongful loss of around Rs 20.72 crore to Indian Railways and corresponding gain to themselves.
Similarly, three cases pertaining to the alleged fraud in the installation of Railway Inmotion Electronic Weigh bridges in Tamil Nadu - Trichy, Tuticorin and Salem - have also been registered, they said.
"At Trichy...It was alleged that these manipulations had taken place during the period from 2012 to 2014 and 64 rakes of goods trains were overloaded and sent by a private company who was a bulk transporter of cement," a CBI official said.
He said another case was registered pertaining to the alleged fraud committed by a private company which installed the equipment at Melivattan village in Tamil Nadu's Tuticorin.
"It was further alleged that a private company which was a bulk transporter had got several tones of excess goods transported using the same modus operandi," the official said.
The sources said the third case was registered pertaining to the alleged fraud committed by a private transporter company in connivance with the weigh bridge equipment installation company at Salem in Tamil Nadu.
"It was further alleged that the fraud had occurred since 2011 and several rakes had been found to carry excess weight causing loss to the Railways," the official said.
CBI's action follows a surprise check by the agency in April where it found that several officials had allegedly manipulated the software for weighing goods wagons resulting in loss of revenue.
CBI sources said that in the financial year 2012-13, Railways transported 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 sources said.
An official in CBI said inputs were received that this system has been manipulated at several places in such a way that overloading is concealed and weight of the wagon is shown to be within the permissible limit.
The sources said it is further suspected that the alleged manipulation has been done through collusion among railway officials, private vendors and freight operators.
"Even a 5 per cent under-reporting of actual weight of freight leads to a difference of Rs 4,263 crore by 2012-13 figures... It is not only causing huge financial loss to the exchequer but also (bringing) corresponding gain to private freight operators and is damaging railway tracks and wagons, thus adversely affecting railway safety," an official said.
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, CBI sources said.