Rail passengers in the country will have to wait for the next five years to travel safely on the train. The Central government had given Rs 1 lakh crore to the Indian Railways to strengthen the safety mechanism of railway tracks, railway crossings, rolling stock (coach-engine-wagon), and bridges, which was to be spent by 2022.

However, the Railway Board won’t be able to spend the money. The board has extended its term till 2027.

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The above has been mentioned in a report presented by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in the winter session of Parliament. It said that in the general budget of 2017-18, the Central government announced to give Rs 1 lakh crore to the Railways as Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK).

In July 2017, the Ministry of Finance issued guidelines for spending RRSK funds. The CAG said that the first, second, and third priorities were fixed to strengthen railway safety. The first priority is to strengthen railway crossings and railway tracks.

The second priority is the upgradation of rolling stock, modern technology, and modernization of the engine cab, and in third priority is the training of crew members (loco pilot, assistant loco pilot, guard), use of technology for monitoring railway track, and rolling stock. The Finance Ministry’s guidelines include regular monitoring of safety works and spending of money by the Planning Directorate of the Railway Board.

The Railways was supposed to spend Rs 1 lakh crore at the rate of Rs 20,000 crore per year for the next five years (from 2017-18 to 2022-23). In this, every year Rs 15,000 crore was to be raised by the Central government and the remaining Rs 5,000 crore by the Railways. The CAG said that the Railways failed to deposit Rs 15,775 crore (5,000 crore per year) in the fund during 2017-18 to 2020-21.

Due to this the work of railway safety was adversely affected. Apart from this, the entire funds allocated for the first, second, and third priority areas could not be spent.

Not only this, the Railways spent 15-20 per cent of the money (about Rs 2,300 crore) on non-priority areas (non-railway safety). The CAG suggested that money needs to be spent as per the guidelines on priority safety works.