The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Drop in Southern Railway's earnings

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 14, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Drop in Southern Railway's earnings

By S.Vydhianathan

CHENNAI, OCT. 13. There was a six per cent drop in Southern Railway's earnings in the first half of this financial year.

The combined revenue from passenger and freight traffic, which was Rs. 1,198 crores during the same period last year, came down to Rs. 1,122 crores. While passenger earnings showed an increase of about six per cent, the revenue from goods traffic decreased by about five per cent, according to official sources.

As usual, the zone has shown improved passenger earnings. Compared to last year's revenue of Rs. 613 crores, this year it is Rs. 648 crores.

The sources said recent changes in train timings were well received by passengers and this was reflected in an increased revenue of Rs. 4 crores in the last month alone. The Chennai-Mangalore West Coast Express, the Erode-Chennai Egmore Express and the Tiruchi-Mangalore Link Express to Mangalore were now running to full capacity.

Admitting that the arrival timing of the Pearl City Express here was not convenient, the sources said it was likely to be advanced after the completion of the suburban gauge conversion between Tambaram and Egmore.

Fall in freight traffic

Attributing the fall in freight traffic to the absence of large-scale industries in this part of the country, the sources said the zone lost much of its coal, cement and foodgrains traffic in the first half of the year.

As against a target of 12 million tonnes fixed by the Railway Board, the zone could move only 10.57 million tonnes.

Earlier coal from eastern coalfields to western part of the country was transported by rail from the Chennai Port. Now it was being shipped to Mangalore by sea and from there by rail.

Earlier Tamil Nadu was the major supplier of cement. But a majority of the factories in the State became obsolete with purchasers getting their supply from Andhra Pradesh, where factories had modern machinery.

Foodgrains movement was also affected, thanks to recurring drought in the State for the past three years.

This apart, the zone was getting piecemeal traffic and there was no bulk movement. Now the zone came up with many incentives and concessions, which would help it achieve this year's target, the sources hoped.

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