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Railway Board has asked Northern Railways to recover wagon maintenance dues from Adani Agri Logistics Limited (AAL) by entering into a retrospective agreement with it. The wagon maintenance dues will be collected from October 2008 when the logistics firm started moving the specially designed wagons for Food Corporation of India (FCI).
AAL, which owned special type of wagons to carry food grains, had an agreement with FCI since 2006. But, Railways was not a party to that agreement. An internal railway report in 2014 found that maintenance charges were not paid for these wagons and sought these charges from AAL, said a source.
Following this, AAL had approached the court, and subsequently the Delhi High Court decided that the firm would have to pay the charges.
Signing a retrospective agreement with AAL will help Railways enforce the court order.
These details, evident from a Railway Board note, do not make it explicitly clear whether the maintenance charges were paid after 2014.
Agreement details
The broad contours of the agreement say that maintenance of these wagons will be done by Indian Railways, on payment as per the agreement to be executed with AAL.
All commercial instructions for dealing with goods traffic including that for private siding (rail-linked cargo handling station) will be applicable as per the terms of the agreement. Routine maintenance costs, regular overhauling, periodic overhauling, and repairs due to normal wear and tear will be charged at five per cent of capital costs of wagons a year. This excludes special components procured by AAL.
Also, AAL will have to bear charges for wagon repairs arising out of reasons other than accidents, the Railway Board has clarified.
In case of accident, the cost of repair shall be borne by AAL depending on who is responsible for the accident as per the inquiry report.
AAL had been granted rail transport clearance for constructing private siding at Moga, Kaithal, Elavur (Chennai), Madukkaral (Coimbatore), Oddarhalli (Bengaluru), Taloje (New Mumbai) and Bendel (Hooghly) railway stations for outward movement of wheat and paddy.
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