NEW DELHI: “Zonal railways tend to tamper with asset failure data to keep the numbers low. The asset failure data is collated every year by Railways to take stock of existing infrastructure like tracks and signalling system, among others,” said a senior railway ministry official.
The official said the massive maintenance work undertaken by the Railways had also affected punctuality as nearly 30 per cent of trains ran late in 2017- 18—the worst punctuality performance in three years.
The punctuality of mail and express trains from April 2017-March 2018 was 71.39 per cent as compared to 76.69 per cent in the corresponding period of 2016-2017, a deterioration of 5.30 per cent. In 2015-2016, 77.44 per cent trains ran on time.