Some

British

era

in

better

bridges

Bridges

in

in

in

bridges

in

good

bridges

bridges

in

bridges

in

bridges

bridges

in

bridges

bridges

in

bridges

railwaywerecondition than the ones built after independence, a parliamentary committee report said today, blaming the nexus between officials and contractors for the poor quality ofThe Public Accounts Committee which presented its report -- Maintenance ofIndian Railway --Parliament, came down hard on the national transporter and said that the delaysanctioning bridgework was putting the lives of passengers at risk."The committee note that while certain railwayconstructed during British rule arecondition, railwayconstructed or reconstructed after independence are of inferior quality and need frequent repair."Nexus between railway officials and few contractors severely affect the quality and life of its construction," the report stated.The committee headed by Congress 's Mallikarjuna Kharge recommended that the tender for construction or rehabilitation ofbe done through e-tendering so as to make the system transparent and to attract large number of reputed and competent construction companiesthe tendering process.It also said that companies or contractors who fail to ensure quality and long life ofbe debarred from participatingfuture tenders and penalised for it.The committee which based its report on a 2015 CAG report on railwayand representations by Railway Board members, expressed its shock that out of the 3,979 bridgesworks sanctioned by the Railway Board, work on 710remains to be completed as on March 2015.According to a Railway Board letterOctober 2017, the Central Railways has 61that need repair, East Central Railways has 63, South Central Railways has 41 and Western Railways has 42pending rebuilding.The committee noted that while the paucity of funds was cited as a reason for shortfallachievement of targets for bridgeworks, the budget grant provided was not utilised to the tune of Rs 60.95 crore per annum."The committee has desired that a strategic management system be developed for fast tracking sanction of rehabilitation or reconstruction ofwithin a time frame based on priority for safety", the report stated.