Nearly 3,000 incidents of signal failures in South Western Railways per year: CAG

New Delhi: The country's top auditor CAG has observed that substantial cases of signal failures at an average of 2,961 incidents per annum in the South Western Railway zone reflect poorly on the reliability and availability of signalling systems.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) tabled in the just concluded Parliament examined the performance of the Signal and Telecommunication (S&T) Department of three Divisions — Hubballi, Bengaluru and Mysuru — of South Western Railway (SWR) during the period from 2018-19 to 2022-23.

"From 2018-19 to 2022-23, 14,808 number of signal failures/defects had taken place, at an average of 2,961 cases per annum. Out of the 14,808 cases, 8,547 were on S&T account while the rest 6,261 cases were on account of other departments viz., Engineering/Operating/Electrical, etc," the audit report said.

"Despite the declining trend, cases of signal failures were substantial. Cases under the category - Miscellaneous were also significant (2,343 cases) which included cases of bad workmanship, lamp fused/blown off, route held up, etc. This indicates the need for a more effective maintenance mechanism to eliminate signal failures,” the auditor observed.

It added that though the cases of accidents in SWR are declining, cases of 'Signal Passing At Danger or red signal jump' (SPAD) and wrong interlocking of points which can divert trains to lines already occupied by other trains are a cause for concern.

It observed that adequate time was granted to the signal department by halting the train operations, however, cases of signal failures continued to take place in substantial numbers.

It added, "There were several instances of abnormal delays in attending to deficiencies pointed out during inspections/joint inspections by the safety department."

The auditors found several cases of disconnection or reconnection of signalling equipment in contravention of Railway Board orders which mandated that no disconnection/ reconnection should be resorted to without issuing a disconnection memo to the station master and obtaining necessary approvals.

Auditing the provision of an indigenous train collision avoidance system (TCAS or KAVACH) on a low-density railway network for 1563 route kilometres, the CAG said that the work was sanctioned in 2020-21 for a value of Rs 469 crore.

It added that even after a lapse of more than three years of sanction, the detailed estimate had not been prepared for the work by March 2024 and its non-execution resulted in the non-availability of Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) in SWR.