Passenger safety compromised in coach overhauling at railway workshop: Parliament panel

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament has observed that the Carriage Repair Workshop in Mancheswar, Bhubaneswar, used second-hand items to replace essential parts of railway coaches, which not only violated periodic overhauling norms but also endangered passenger safety.

The workshop’s wrongdoings came to light when several coaches, repaired there, failed within 100 days of periodic overhauling.

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The PAC observed several anomalies in the performance of the workshop, its procurement process of plant and machinery, as well as inaccuracies in the maintenance of coach holding data.

The Carriage Repair Workshop, Mancheswar (CRW/MCS), which comes under the East Coast Railway (ECoR) zone, was established in November 1981 to repair railway coaches. Its initial overhauling capacity was 45 coaches per month, which was increased to 150 coaches by 2016.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) had examined the functioning of the workshop for the year ended March 2023 in its report tabled in Parliament in 2025 and the PAC selected the CAG report for detailed examination.

While examining the functioning of the workshop, the PAC noted that the projections for periodic overhauling (POH) of coaches were made higher than the actual outturn.

For instance, during the review period of 2020 to 2023, the committee found that its initial projections were to overhaul 4,370 coaches and despite the Railway Board reducing the target to 3,796 coaches, its outturn was 3,402 coaches.

“The Committee are of the view that since projections determine the required spares, manpower and other resources, realistic projections of POH arisings are essential for management of resources of any carriage repair workshop,” the report said.

Examining the failure of coaches within 100 days of POH, the committee said that of the 3,402 coaches overhauled during 2020-23, 131 failed within 100 days of POH and of these, 14 instances were reported to the Mancheswar workshop by various rail depots.

“…the remaining 117 instances were not reported by the depots, as a result of which CRW/MCS could not analyse all instances of failure of coaches within 100 days of POH,” the committee said.

The committee expressed concern to note that in many coaches which failed within 100 days of POH, 19 must-change mechanical items were replaced by second-hand serviceable items.

This not only violated “the prescribed procedure of must-change items during POH… but also compromised passenger safety”.

“The Committee observe that despite inspection at multiple stages, sometimes failure occurs due to material defects, poor workmanship, or improper usage,” the report said, adding that after deployment of staff to monitor POH, there were improvements in 100-day failure cases.

“The occurrence of 100-day failure cases is a clear indicator of poor performance of the workshop, directly reflecting the substandard quality,” the report said.

It added, “The Committee, therefore, recommends that the errant practice of replacement of must-change mechanical items by second-hand serviceable items by the bogie repair shop during the POH should be eliminated forthwith.”

It also recommended an independent third-party assessment “to identify the major reasons for failures and utilise the findings for taking corrective actions”.

“The Committee further recommends that cases of under-reporting of failure cases by the Depots to the Workshop should be taken proper cognisance of, as it leads to data mismatches and non-receipt/outturn of coaches and should, therefore, be done away with and monitoring of sick marking of POH coaches should be strengthened,” the report said.

The committee also noted non-cognisance of several issues flagged by the CAG report leading to the idling of plant and machinery coupled with a waste of public money.

“Since plant and machinery are the foundational assets of any carriage workshop, their idleness must be avoided to mitigate the wastage of public funds,” the committee said.

It recommended a proper mechanism “to ensure procurement of machinery of desired specifications only from validated vendors and also to introduce and implement measures for the purpose of stronger financial deterrence as regards terms and conditions of the Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC).”

Published – April 03, 2026 08:59 pm IST