Friday, March 18 2005 19:17 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Justice U C Banerjee Committee, appointed to go into the causes of the Godhra Train fire, has in its interim report highlighted the failure of the railway administration to preserve some of the clues, the Rajya Sabha was informed today (Mar 18, 2005).

In a written reply, Minister of State for Railways R Velu said that broken parts of window-panes and shutters and burnt vestibule of S-7 Coach were disposed off in scrap.

In reply to another question, he said that Commissioner, Railway Safety, Western Circle, under the Ministry of Civil Aviation, did not undertake statutory inquiry into the Godhra train incident under section 114 of the Railways Act, 1949 in view of the Government of Gujarat having appointed a Judicial Commission.

He said that the Government has decided to set up rail Traffic Regulatory Authority to fix Rail Tariffs. However, Velu said that the Ministry of Railways was of the view that such an authority is not required and has approached the Cabinet for reconsideration of its decision.

He also let it be known that the approximate expenditure incurred on Kulhars (earthen container) from June to November 2004 was Rs 68,33,810.

Velu said that out of the 278 recommendations made by the Railway Safety Review Committee (Khanna Committee) in both the parts of their report, 240 had been accepted fully or partially by the Ministry of Railways and of these 136 have been implemented till February 28, 2005.

Special care has also been taken by the Railways to provide security to woman passengers, which included deployment of special squads in the form of Surakshni, Tejaswani, Durganbahini and Bhairavi consisting of ladies from Railways Protection Force, the Minister said.