Various railway zones failed to recover outstanding dues amounting to Rs 4087.33 crore from 269 private siding owners till March 2023, according to a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
A siding is an extension track that directly connects the main railway line with company premises and is helpful in eliminating freight handling at the stations.
The Railway Board had instructed all zones in 2017 to ensure recovery of the dues from private siding owners, responding to the past audit coverage.
According to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), there are three types of sidings -- public, private and assisted, out of which the private sidings belong to private parties, and their construction and maintenance are carried out by the Railways on a chargeable basis.
The Railways enter into various agreements, such as Land Licence Agreements and Private Siding Agreements, before commissioning the sidings.
In its report tabled in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, the CAG said, "As of March 2023, there were a total of 1,752 sidings across Indian Railways out of which 1,007 sidings (57.5 per cent) were operational private sidings." "An amount of Rs 4,087.33 crore remained unrealised from the siding owners towards various charges as on March 2023, which comprises Rs 3,321.40 crore (including interest) towards Land License Fee recoverable from the siding owners," it added, referring to its past audit coverage of 2015.
The recent audit concerning private sidings was conducted in 2023-24 for the period between 2018-2019 and 2022-2023.
The auditors selected 269 out of 1,007 operational private sidings across various zones for detailed examinations.
It was found that out of 269, agreements were not executed with 22 private siding owners; 14 siding agreements of seven zonal railways were not made available to the audit team; and 147 siding agreements were not renewed up to March 2023.
"Scrutiny of records related to 269 private sidings revealed that in respect of 147 sidings, bills were not preferred against the siding owners. Further, there was also a delay in the realisation of various charges by the Railway Administration," the report said.
"Thus, non-realisation of various siding charges was due to non-preferring of bills by the Railway Administration and was indicative of the lack of monitoring and internal controls," it added.
The CAG recommended various measures to the Railways to improve and track recovery of their dues, such as the development of an integrated IT application to ensure the levy and recovery of charges from the siding owners in a time-bound manner.
It further urged Railways to "strengthen monitoring and internal control mechanisms to ensure adherence to extant instructions in respect of levy/recovery of various charges and maintenance of records like siding register, siding agreement, etc." According to the CAG, establishing coordination among the different departments responsible for the timely recovery of various siding charges is also an effective way to recover the dues.
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