Basic amenities are missing in 89% of audited stations

Why in the News

A Comptroller and Auditor General performance audit of passenger amenities and sanitation found that 458 of 512 audited railway stations, nearly 89 per cent, were deficient in one or more minimum essential amenities. The shortfall persisted while the annual allocation rose from about Rs 3,900 crore to Rs 14,072 crore in 2023-24. The tension is between a large capital modernisation programme and the unmet basic amenity standard the railway itself has notified.

What is a minimum essential amenity?

1. About: Minimum essential amenities are the facilities Indian Railways is required to provide at every station regardless of category, distinct from desirable or recommended amenities.
2. Coverage: They include drinking water, seating, platform shelter, latrines, urinals, fans, lighting and a clock.
3. Why the category matters: These are not aspirational upgrades, so a shortfall is a failure against the railway’s own mandatory standard.

What did the audit actually find?

1. Overall deficiency: 458 of 512 stations audited were deficient in one or more minimum essential amenities, and only 54 stations, 11 per cent, had no shortfall.
2. Amenity wise gaps: Fans were missing at 42 per cent of stations, water coolers at 40 per cent, drinking water taps at 27 per cent, urinals at 22 per cent, seating at 15 per cent, platform shelters at 13 per cent, latrines at 12 per cent and clocks at 12 per cent.
3. Sample base: The sample was drawn from 5,908 stations across 16 zones, running 7,424 passenger trains daily and serving 292.4 crore passengers in 2023-24.
4. Non modernised share: 325 of the 512 audited stations were outside the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme.
5. Accessibility gap: Ramps, tactile pathways, lifts, accessible toilets and announcements for persons with disabilities were inadequate and non compliant.

Why did higher allocation not translate into amenities?

1. Utilisation shortfall: Year on year underutilisation of the allocated budget ran at 36 to 44 per cent.
2. Allocation discontinuity: The budget sat near Rs 3,200 to Rs 3,900 crore from 2019-20 to 2022-23, then jumped to Rs 14,072 crore in 2023-24, faster than execution capacity grew.
3. Programme concentration: Modernisation attention has focused on the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme stations, while most audited deficiencies sat at the 325 stations outside it.
4. Absent planning instrument: The audit found no station wise time bound action plan against which shortfalls could be tracked and closed.

What does this say about audit’s role in policy implementation?

1. Scope of the audit: The audit examined delivery against the railway’s own notified amenity standard, not the merit of the modernisation policy.
2. Constitutional basis: The Comptroller and Auditor General’s powers over Union and state accounts derive from Article 149.
3. Propriety dimension: Auditing whether sanctioned money produced the mandated outcome is a propriety question, not merely a legality question.
4. Recommendation: The audit recommends station wise time bound action plans, which converts a diagnostic finding into a management instrument.

Challenges in railway passenger amenity delivery

1. Capital bias in allocation: Spending concentrates on visible redevelopment rather than on recurring maintenance. e.g. the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme covering over 1,300 stations while basic fans and taps remain absent elsewhere.
2. Execution capacity ceiling: A sudden allocation jump outruns the tendering and contracting machinery. e.g. 36 to 44 per cent annual underutilisation despite a rising budget.
3. Maintenance versus creation: Created assets degrade without a funded maintenance line. e.g. installed water coolers found non functional across audited stations.
4. Accessibility non compliance: Statutory accessibility obligations remain unmet at most stations. e.g. tactile pathways and accessible toilets found inadequate in the audit sample.
5. Small station neglect: Low footfall stations fall outside modernisation schemes and outside political attention. e.g. 325 of the 512 audited stations sitting outside the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme.
6. Outcome measurement: Performance is reported as stations sanctioned rather than as amenities functioning. e.g. the absence of any station wise time bound action plan noted by the audit.

Conclusion

The audit shows that the constraint is not money but the capacity to convert money into functioning amenities, since underutilisation ran between 36 and 44 per cent while deficiency stayed near 89 per cent. Modernisation of a selected 1,300 stations does not substitute for the mandatory amenity standard owed at all 5,908. The next milestone is whether the railway adopts the station wise time bound action plans the audit has recommended.

Back2Basics: Comptroller and Auditor General of India

1. Established under Article 148, appointed by the President and removable only in the manner of a Supreme Court judge.
2. Holds office for six years or until the age of 65, whichever is earlier.
3. Powers and conditions of service are governed by the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (Duties, Powers and Conditions of Service) Act, 1971.
4. Article 149 defines duties in relation to the accounts of the Union, the states and other authorities.
5. Audit reports are laid before Parliament under Article 151 and examined by the Public Accounts Committee.
6. Conducts financial, compliance and performance audits, the last of which examines economy, efficiency and effectiveness.

Government Initiatives

1. Amrit Bharat Station Scheme: Launched in 2022 to modernise over 1,300 stations through master planning, targeting passengers at medium and small stations.
2. Rail Kaushal Vikas Yojana: Provides skill training to youth using railway training infrastructure.
3. Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat: Extends the sanitation mission to station and coach cleanliness, with third party cleanliness ranking of stations.
4. Accessible India Campaign: Requires accessibility retrofitting of public transport infrastructure including railway stations.

Way Forward

1. Adopt station wise action plans: Publish a dated closure plan for every deficient amenity at every audited station.
2. Fund maintenance separately: Create a protected maintenance head so created assets do not degrade into the same deficiency.
3. Prioritise non scheme stations: Direct amenity spending first to the stations outside the modernisation scheme, where the audit found most gaps.
4. Report functioning, not sanction: Measure performance by amenities working on inspection date, not by units installed.
5. Enforce accessibility standards: Bring station infrastructure into compliance with the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 obligations.

Matching Previous Year Question

“[2016, GS2, 12.5 marks] Exercise of CAG’s powers in relation to the accounts of the Union and the States is derived from Article 149 of the Indian Constitution. Discuss whether audit of the Government’s Policy implementation could amount to overstepping its own (CAG) jurisdiction.”