No official Railway Board PDF has been traced for this entry yet. The text below was read from the document held in the library.
| Circular number | No.2007/TC-III/1/2 |
|---|---|
| Date | 2007-06-14 |
| Type | Commercial Circular |
| Topic | claims |
Expeditious settlement of claims filed by Industry claims settlement process should be speeded up.
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(Railway Board)
No.2007/TC-III/1/2
New Delhi, dt. 14-6-2007
The General Manager/Claims
All Indian Railways.
Sub: Expeditious settlement of claims filed by Industry.
As Railways are aware, claims organization on the Railways is required
to provide ‘after sales service’ to its customers in the form of prompt settlement
of their claims as a responsible transporter committed towards safe carriage of
their consignments. It has however, been reported by the Industry in the
meeting of Railway – Industry Coordination Committee presided by Hon’ble
MR on 10-5-07 that there are inordinate delays in the settlement and payment
of their claims by the Railways. It has been requested by the Industry that the
claims settlement process should be speeded up.
Being the largest transporter of the country it is obligatory on the part of
the railways for expeditious, assured and satisfactory Claims settlement
achieved through a process which is transparent and customer friendly. The
existing systems have to be so oriented or upgraded so as to meet with the
expectations of the customer.
The need for expeditious settlement of claims by the railways for non-
delivery, shortage, damage etc. filed by the rail customers has been
emphasized time & again in the past. The following instructions are once again
reiterated for their strict compliance:-
1)
The most important parameter for judging the performance of a Claims
Office is the time taken for settlement of claims. It is therefore necessary
that not only time targets be laid down for different commodities and
causes and for important customers, but firms arrangements also be
made to process the cases on the basis of these time frames. Necessary
flow charts for processing claims at various stages should be enforced in
the claims office with the objective of settling these claims within the time
schedule as laid down under Board’s letter No. 97/TC-III/49/7 dated 1-8-
97.(copy enclosed)
2)
The existing system of claims settlement is beset with delays, long drawn
out methods, absence of live communication with customers etc., is much
below the expectation. Arrangements have to be made to reply each and
every communication from the customer. Our responses should be
positive to assure the claimant at the earliest the payability of the claim
and the time target by which he should receive the settlement. In this
context, special meetings on quarterly basis held with important
customers for finalizing their claims on a time bound programme are of
extreme importance and should become the back-bone of claim
settlement process.
3)
The adjustment of the sanctioned claim of the Industry against their
outstanding railway dues should not be done without giving them two
notices. In this connection Board’s instructions as contained in their letter
No. 2000/TC-III/9/3 dated 14-6-2000 (copy enclosed) may please be
referred to.
4)
An effective functioning framework of rules and procedures for efficient
handling of claims is not only a must but requires to be updated from time
to time. There should be firm arrangements for notifying instructions to all
staff and inspectors in the form of Standing Order Books, Compendiums
of circulars and Manuals and there should be Workshops/Seminars for
making them up-to-date. To start with, each railway should organize a
workshop on quarterly basis for its staff and inspectors.
5)
Expeditious settlement of claims is one way of securing customers
satisfaction, but it needs to be appreciated that the claims organisation
on the railways is only a part of after-sale service, and, therefore, is in the
form of solving a problem after it has occurred. In order to get real
customer satisfaction, it is necessary for the railways that the goods
reach their destinations speedily and safely. Heavy detention of detached
and unconnected wagons is a
Extract shown above; the full text is available in the search app.
Open this circular in the search app · Search all 4,025 documents