The auditors found several cases of disconnection or reconnection of signalling equipment in contravention of Railway Board orders which mandated that no disconnection/ reconnection should be resorted to without issuing a disconnection memo to the station master and obtaining necessary approvals.

The report has recorded several cases of non-compliance with deficiencies pointed out during joint inspections by the safety audit.

For instance, deficiencies pointed out during the joint inspection of points and crossings at Bellary station yard in December 2020 were not attended to for three months till March 2021.

In another case in Kudatini station yard, the CAG said the deficiency regarding broken sleepers at the point region was not attended to even after one year by March 2021.

The report has also mentioned a case of averted head-on collision of two trains, one involving train no. 12649 – Sampark Kranthi Express. It said that due to the negligence of staff, the track was interlocked in such a way that it made a route for the passenger train to a line already occupied by another train.

"This serious anomaly was noticed by the loco pilot who stopped the train before Point No. 65A. Had the train not been stopped before the wrongly set point, it would have moved in the down line leading to a head-on collision with a goods train moving in the down line," the report said.

"Railway Administration replied that in view of the implications on safety, action was being taken against staff carrying out works without following the procedure of issuing disconnection/re-connections, under discipline & appeal rules and deterrent penalty imposed," it added.

Further, safety audit reports also pointed out several lapses regarding the disconnection/ reconnection of the signalling system.

Auditing the provision of an indigenous train collision avoidance system (TCAS or KAVACH) on a low-density railway network for 1563 route kilometres, the CAG said that the work was sanctioned in 2020-21 for a value of Rs 469 crore.