NEW DELHI: In perhaps it’s biggest ever operation, 500 CBI officers along with vigilance officers of Indian railways carried countrywide joint surprise checks at 65 locations unearthing major irregularities in the weighment of freight carried in trains.Almost two-third of the revenue of Indian Railways’ comes from freight earnings. The irregularities are not only leading to losses of several thousand crores for the transporter but also weakening tracks on long routes where the freight wagons move.The agency will soon register multiple FIRs. Several senior officers of railways, private vendors and freight transporters are under the scanner. The CBI suspects losses of Rs 4,263 crore may have been caused going by figures of 2012-13 alone but are probing under-reporting of weighment of past three financial years.The agency says that manipulations have been found in the software of static and in-motion weigh bridges that are used by railways for weighment purposes. Electronic In-Motion Weigh Bridge (EIMWBs) have been developed by Indian Railways in consultation with Research Development and Standards Organization (RDSO). Around 200 such bridges have been installed by Indian Railways at different locations throughout India to weigh freight in transit. RDSO had approved six vendors for establishing (EIMWBs). Goods trains passing at the speed of 15 km per hour get automatically weighed by this system.CBI received information that this system at several places was manipulated in such a manner that over loading of the wagon is concealed and weight is shown within the permissible limit. CBI suspects that highly sophisticated methods have been used to manipulate the software.“The manipulation has been done through collusion amongst railway officials, private vendors and freight operators and is not only causing huge financial loss to the government exchequer but also corresponding gain to private freight operators/private persons and is damaging railway tracks, wagons, etc. and is adversely affecting railway safety,” said a CBI official.The four-day joint surprise checks, which started on April 17, along with vigilance department of the railways and digital forensic experts were carried out at over 65 EIMWB locations involving major freight traffic points in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, UP, Punjab, Jharkhand, Assam, West Bengal, Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, MP, Maharashtra, Goa, Rajasthan and Gujarat etc.During the checks, CBI found that “systematic under-weighment was found at many locations leading to the EIMWB recording a lower than actual weight. The quantum of under-weighment increased with an increase in speed of the rake.”Digital analysis conducted by CBI found “old weighment logs showing past manipulations in weighment, manipulations in entries pertaining to wagon type”. A CBI officer said, “The software was set in a way in EIMWBs that it will always show less weight in the wagon.”Indian Railways, the single largest mode of transport in the country for movement of freight across long distances, had a freight earning of Rs 85,262 crore for 1008 million metric tonne of freight transported, which constitutes 67% of total revenue earned by the railways,” said the officer.In railways, the goods are either transported in packed bags of uniform sizes or in loose form. These are required to be weighed at the originating station or en-route or at the destination point. The weighment is required to plug the leakage of revenue and to avoid over loading of wagons. The railways collect freight charges from various transporters who transport goods in wagons from one place to another place in the country. These charges are levied based on the weight of the goods that are loaded in the wagons.The railways said it was a “joint surprise check by railways’ vigilance department and CBI to streamline the system and check irregularities, if any”.