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 the wrong timings of the 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 the 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 Km/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.”

