Parliament Question: CAG Report No. 24 of 2025

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 5409 TO BE ANSWERED ON 25.03.2026 CAG REPORT NO. 24 OF 2025 5409. DR. BACHHAV SHOBHA DINESH: ADV GOWAAL KAGADA PADAVI: SHRI VISHALDADA PRAKASHBAPU PATIL: Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state: (a) whether Comptroller and Auditor General of India Report No. 24 of 2025 has flagged outdated, incomplete or non-renewed private siding agreements leading to ambiguity in levy, recovery and enforcement of charges and if so, the details thereof; (b) the details of the number of such deficient or expired agreements in the Maharashtra railway network including freight-linked sidings in divisions covering Solapur, Nandurbar, Bhandara, Sangli and Dhule, zone and division-wise; (c) whether Railways failed to revise agreements in accordance with updated policies, traffic volumes or revised rate structures and if so, the details and the reasons therefor; and (d) the details of the time-bound plan to standardise/renew agreements, fix responsibility for lapses and recover arrears identified by audit with officer-wise accountability? ANSWER MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW) (a) to (d) In the Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s Report No. 24 of 2025, certain issues related to recovery of dues and execution of agreements of private sidings have been highlighted, with recommendation for system improvement in the area. § Page 1 of 3Zonal Railways have been advised to take pro-active steps to streamline the process of execution of private siding agreements as per existing policy guidelines. Corrective measures such as development of an integrated IT application for timely levy and recovery of all due charges, improving coordination among different departments responsible for timely recovery of various siding-related charges, and strengthening internal control mechanism etc, are also being taken. A time-bound recovery plan is implemented to address the outstanding dues identified by audit. This includes enforcing Land License Agreements and raising pending bills within stipulated timelines. As part of this ongoing process, a portion of the outstanding amount has already been recovered and efforts are being made to recover balance dues. The Ministry has introduced the IR-LSPS portal to facilitate a more standardized, transparent, and time-bound mechanism for monitoring dues and tracking agreement renewals. Recovery of audit-identified arrears is being pursued in accordance with extant rules. The system is intended to support improved monitoring and compliance. Further, Railway has introduced the Gati Shakti Multi-Modal Cargo Terminal (GCT) Policy to streamline and standardize cargo terminal operations. All new private terminals are governed by the GCT framework, under which, execution of an agreement prior to the commencement of operations and before issuance of commercial notification is mandatory. This policy offers key benefits such as simplified approvals, no departmental charges, waiver of land license fees for connectivity, and defined responsibility of Railways Page 2 of 3for major infrastructure and common-user facilities, along with incentives like freight rebates. It also offers existing private sidings to migrate to GCT terminal by signing a supplementary agreement. The provisions of GCT policy ensure clarity and uniformity in contractual arrangements and abate ambiguity in levy and recovery of charges. So far, 128 GCTs have been commissioned, and further in-principle approvals (IPAs) for 292 more locations have been given. ***** Page 3 of 3