Indian Railways blasted by CAG over Mughalsarai station

A CAG report found major capacity constraints at Mughalsarai railway station, which was recently renamed Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction, and it said the inadequate length of platforms was leading to inconvenience for passengers.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) tabled its report, "Augmentation of Station Line Capacity on Selected Stations in Indian Railways", in Parliament today.

It said the Mughalsarai station, one of India's oldest and the fourth busiest, handles around 140 trains per day.

Out of this, 30 trains have 24 or more coaches. However, only four out of eight platforms had the capacity to handle trains with 24 or more coaches, the report found.

The report said at the Mughalsarai station (ECR), the work to make all platforms long enough to accommodate 24 coaches was awarded in May 2012 by the Electrical Department for electric works and in July 2012 by the Signal and Telecommunication Department. 

Though the work commenced in December 2012, only electrical work was completed by November 2013 and other works were yet to be completed.

"As seen during audit, due to inadequate length of platform, a number of trains are stopped at platform with less capacity causing inconvenience to passengers in boarding and de-boarding the trains. 

"Works taken up for making all platforms capable of handling 24 coaches or more, interlocking related works and Mughalsarai yard which was taken up five ten years back, were yet to be completed," it said.

The report said the work making all platforms capable of handling 24 or more coach trains may be expedited and completed on priority. 

It further went on to say the lack of infrastructure at the stations was also leading to undue detention of trains. 

The total detention was 4,338 minutes, an average of 20 minutes per train. For goods trains, the average detention was 21 minutes per train in respect of 705 goods trains passing through this station, it said. 

The station was renamed as Deendayal Upadhyay junction to honour RSS ideologue.