AGRA: The Indian Railways managed to touch 409 km/h to cover 116 km distance in 17 minutes between Fatehpur and Allahabad. This fact was revealed in a recent CAG audit.

According to CAG, while auditing data entry of three trains — Prayag Raj Express, Jaipur- Allahabad Express and New Delhi-Allahabad Duronto Express — major discrepancies were found which raise a question on the railways’ data integrity as incorrect entries were fed into Integrated Coaching Management System (ICMS), which is responsible for monitoring the punctuality and real time data of train operations. This data is also reflected in National Train Enquiry System (NTES) and incorrect entries caused a great deal of inconvenience to the passengers, by showing wrong timings of arrival of trains in Allahabad station.

CAG in its audit said, “During the year 2016-17, the three trains (Prayag Raj Express, Jaipur- Allahabad Express and New Delhi-Allahabad Duronto Express) operated on 354, 343 and 144 days respectively, out of which they took less than 53 minutes (on 25,29 and 31 days respectively) to travel a distance of 116 km between Fatehpur and Allahabad.”

According to railway, to cover the distance between Fatehpur and Allahabad Junction, a maximum permissible speed for the trains is 130 kmph and minimum 53 minutes. But CAG found that, “On July 9 2016, Allahabad Duronto Express, reached Fatehpur at 5:53 am and Allahabad at 6:10 am, which suggested that the train travelled 116 km in 17 minutes, at a speed of 409 Kms/per hour.”

Similarly, in another data entry discrepancies, on April 10 2017, Jaipur Allahabad Express reached Fatehpur at 5:56 am and Allahabad at 5:31 am. On that day, in Punctuality Performance Table, it was shown 36 minutes delay of the train in arrival at Allahabad. A similar case was reported with Prayag Raj Express on March 7 2017, where train reached Allahabad at 6:50 am, but records also mentioned that train left Subedarganj, a station prior to Allahabad at 7:45 am.

The CAG in its audit conclusion while referring to NCR poor data entry, said, “There is a possibility of similar incorrect data entry in other zones as well, which created inconvenience to passengers.”

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a senior railway official said, “The mistakes highlighted by CAG were human errors and precautions were taken to ensure no further discrepancies is there in data entry of timing.”

