Backdoor games at CR has bearing on commuter safety

Backdoor games at CR has bearing on commuter safety
KALPANA VERMA

January 4: How safe is a train that runs on bearings that have been rusting in a godown for five years? An obvious negative response but the Central Railway (CR) doesn't seem the think so. Five years after they were rejected for want of import documents, the CR has okayed 113 bearings for use. Technical experts stress that no bearings can survive without rust for over five years though the CR may have already fitted them to Diesal Locos, putting the lives of commuters at risk.

The railway traction purpose bearing, NU330, used in AC and DC electric locomotives and in diesal locomotives are mostly stored at the Kalyan-Mumbai DC Electric depots. In 1994, the Central Railway's Controller Of Stores (COS) placed a purchase order (No 40.92.3828.1.02268) on April 4, 1994 for 215 NU330 bearings from the M/S Pavan International Mumbai. Priced at Rs 31850 each, the bearings were to be delivered to the Kalyan depot from where they would be transferred to other depots from Kalyan. As the bearings were to be imported from STEYR-Austria, import documents were essential for their acceptance.

Out of the consignment, 102 bearings were accepted while the next consignment of 113 bearings, which arrived on November 24, 1994, was rejected as it lacked import documentation. Railway sources reveal that the firm had already collected 95 per cent of the total Rs 40,84,762. Though the CR issued recovery advice for Rs 34 lakh to the Finance Advisor and Chief Accounts Officer on February 25, 1995, no recovery was made.

The CR's Audit Department kept pushing the officials of the Stores Department to do something about the rejected consignment but nothing happened for five years. ``Initially, the then Assistant Controller of Stores (ACOS), Kalyan, was pressurised to release the receipt order for the 113 rejected bearings but he refused, stating that unless the Controller of Stores' office waived the necessity for import documents, the receipt note could not be released. Further, he needed a formal amendment of the purchase order for the same. However, without the amendment or the nullification of the need for import documents, the back door entry was made.'' a CR official reveals on condition ofannoymity.

Thus, on October 4, 1999, perhaps counting on the fact that the memory of the rejection would have faded away, the COS's office advised ACOS, Kalyan, to enter the 113 bearings in the books for Depot Stock Verification (DVS). Moreover, 44 bearings were to be issued to DC Loco Kalyan while 66 bearings were to go to the Chief Works Manager, Parel. The Chief Mechanical Engineer, Power Diesel, deemed that the railway could use these bearings.

Subsequently, the 113 bearings were taken on books through DVS and the receipt was issued.

Sources reveal that an invoice stands testimony to the fact that the bearings were not from M/S STEYR Austria but had been purchased instead from a Kolkata-based firm M/S Kothari Brothers. Also available are challans totalling the order quantity. The Controller of Stores, G Shiv Shankaran, denies this charge. ``I don't know any Kothari Brothers. The bearings are genuine products of STEYR-Austria. In fact, the Rail India Technical and Engineering Services (RITES) also inspected the material and found it to be genuine,'' he says.

Sources in the railway tell a different story. Apparently, the 113 bearings were only visually inspected by RITES in the transporter's godown with a remark to that effect in the inspection notes. RITES officials had not verified whether the bearings were indeed imported. Railway sources say that the bearings were sold by M/s Kothari Brothers to M/s Pavan at Rs 11,000 and Rs 16,000 each.

Says Shiv Shankar, ``The Central Railway and the supplier were having a dispute caused by the lack of import documents. However, when we checked with STEYR, Austria, they assured us that the material was made by them. Moreover, the Chief Mechanical Engineer inspected the material and found it to be alright. It has not rusted as it is made special quality steel material. Thus, there is no harm in approving the material again.''

Why didn't the CR approach STEYR, Austria, five years ago to find out whether the bearings were made by them. Pat, comes Shivshankaran's clarification, ``In any dispute, these things take time!''