A parliamentary committee has pulled up the Ministry of Railways for failing to provide any completion timeline for nearly 3,000 rail bridges sanctioned at a cost of Rs 3,328 crores since 2015. It has also asked the Railway Board to have a strict monitoring of all projects and fix responsibility for unreasonable and unexplained delays.
The action taken report of the Public Accounts Committee on Maintenance of Bridges in Indian Railways, tabled in both Houses on Tuesday, said the submission by the ministry is conspicuously silent on the issue of fixing accountability against Railways officers for procuring equipment at exorbitant rates as the same are lying underutilised.
Asking the ministry to put in place a monitoring system that would ensure timely completion of the projects, the PAC recommended the monitoring committees at railway board, zonal railways level.