CBI Books Retired Southern Railway Civil Engineers Over ₹4 Crore Construction Irregularities

The Central Bureau of Investigation (#CBI) has registered two separate cases against two retired #SouthernRailway civil engineers and several other individuals in connection with alleged financial and procedural irregularities during construction work on a new broad-gauge railway line in Tamil Nadu.

The cases stem from alleged irregularities within the 17.75-kilometre Milavittan-Melamarudur section located in the Tuticorin district, which forms part of the proposed Madurai-Tuticorin railway route originally sanctioned by the Railway Board in March 2014 at an estimated cost of ₹120.70 crore.

According to the agency, the combined financial loss to the exchequer across both cases is approximately ₹4 crore.

The first case centers on the unauthorized construction of two minor bridges instead of the single approved structure. The CBI alleged that a contract for the two structures was awarded to a firm owned by Y. Chinna Reddy on October 3, 2016, without obtaining prior approval from the competent authority.

These bridges were completed by July 10, 2017, at a cost of ₹3.59 crore. Investigators noted that because the two structures were located within 30 metres of each other on the same waterway, they could easily have been combined.

Furthermore, the agency stated that the bridges were built about four metres above the approved level without any technical justification, causing an increase in earthwork and land acquisition costs that resulted in a loss of ₹2.57 crore. A proposal seeking formal approval was initiated nearly two years later on May 24, 2019, in an alleged attempt to regularize the illegal construction.

Consequently, the CBI has named Muhammed Salaiya, then deputy chief engineer, construction in Southern Railway’s Madurai division, alongside the contractor firm and its managing director Y. Chinna Reddy, under sections relating to criminal conspiracy, cheating, and public servant misconduct.

The second case involves a separate FIR registered by the CBI Anti-Corruption Branch in Madurai, which targets the unauthorized execution of a concrete retaining wall along the same railway section during 2016 and 2017. This FIR names retired Deputy Chief Engineer Muhammed Salaiya, retired Executive Engineer William Jai, and a private resident, M. Sulochana.

According to the investigation, the construction of the retaining wall was carried out of sequence; standard railway norms dictate that retaining walls should be built after bridge construction is completed. Constructing the wall beforehand left insufficient space for earthwork along the bridge approaches, causing the entire retaining wall to become buried under the earth formation and rendering it completely non-functional.

The CBI deemed this proposal flawed and unjustified, stating that it inflicted a wrongful loss of ₹1.44 crore on the railway department. Both former engineers and private individuals now face prosecution under criminal conspiracy, cheating, and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.