SCR posts 18.5 % growth in income

The South Central Railway (SCR) has shown a remarkable performance in gross earnings and traffic volume, especially in freight sector in the month of October, 2014, in spite of Hudhud' cyclone on rail operations in the 2nd week of October. Consistent performance in the current fiscal has resulted in the zone posting impressive growth rates, surpassing the Railway Board's target in freight loading and gross earnings for the period April to October, 2014.

Close monitoring of running of train services and appropriate timely interventions; rationalisation of operational practices and maximising the rolling stock utilisation, coupled with the huge surge in rail traffic handled at Krishnapatnam and Kakinada ports resulted in registering growth in traffic and earnings during April-October,2014.

The gross originating earnings of SCR at Rs 6,915 crore registered a growth of 18.5 per cent during the period April-October, 2014. It reflects generation of additional revenue of Rs 1,080 crore when compared to Rs 5,835 crore grossed in the same period of last fiscal. The gross earnings surpassed the Railway Board's target of Rs 6,589 crore for this period by 5 per cent.

Passenger sector performance

On passenger front, SCR carried 216 millions of originating passengers during the period April-October, 2014 i.e. 10.1 lakh of originating passengers on an average per day.

The Zone operated 441 services of originating special trains and attached 7291 additional coaches, benefiting 6.7 lakh of passengers during April-October, 2014. These measures resulted in additional revenue of Rs 29.2 crore in this period. In addition, 27 Jansadharan specials with all general coaches have been run connecting major cities in SCR during the same period to meet the passenger demand in unreserved segment.

The new concept of 'Premium Train', which is based on dynamic pricing model, received overwhelming response from SCR's passengers. 19 premium trains were operated to long distance destinations such as New Delhi, Kolkata, Patna, Mumbai, Amritsar, Ahmedabad and Visakhapatnam during April–October, 2014. These resulted in generating additional earnings of Rs 1.21 crore compared to the realisations from normal trains.

The carrying capacity of 21 pairs of regular trains has been augmented by attaching 24 additional coaches, which created 1704 extra berths/seats on a permanent basis.

All these measures helped in enhancing the revenues from passenger business on SCR. The earnings from passenger sector were Rs 1,784 crore, generating incremental passenger revenue of Rs 275 crore during April-October, 2014. It signifies an impressive 18.3 per cent growth in comparison to the passenger earnings of Rs 1,508 crore gained in the same period of last FY.