Criticising the Railways, the committee said in spite of repeated recommendations by the earlier committees, the proper accounting of the sale proceeds of scrap disposal does not figure in the Budget documents of 1998-99.

The committee said scrap disposal was an important area having a lot of potential to generate funds for financing the projects suffering from fund constraints.

Noting that in 1993-94 alone, a sum of Rs 850 crore had been generated from scrap disposal, the committee said money released on account of sale proceeds of scrap by different zonal railways should be pooled and the money so pooled should be released for financing important projects like new lines, electrification etc.

Looking into the progress of track renewals, the committee urged that more funds should bemade available for track renewals so that all the arrears of track renewals could be wiped out within in the Ninth Plan period itself.

The committee said that Rs 7231 crore were invested for track renewals in the Eighth Plan period and during the Ninth Plan period, it is proposed to spend Rs 13200 crore in the track renewals and related activities.

The committee expressed that the total track due for renewals is 10,957 kilometres on broad gauge and 1014 on metre gauge on April 1,1997. During 1998-99, 372 new works are proposed to be taken under track renewals. Accordingly, 3,485 kilometres of broad gauge and 88.4 kilometres of metre gauge track would be renewed during the year.

The committee said that with the present rate of allocation of funds, it would not be possible for the Railways to wipe out the arrears of track renewals before the Ninth Plan, hence higher outlay was being recommended.