The Hindu Business Line : S-E Rly freight loading touches record high, earnings up 35.5%

BACKED by a record performance in freight loading for the April-August 2005 period, the South Eastern Railway (SER) has achieved a 35.5 per cent increase in its originating freight earnings at Rs 1,545.54 crore, up from the Rs 1,139.93 crore for the same period of 2004-05.

Briefing newspersons here on Monday on SER's performance, and also the special arrangements being made for ensuring passenger safety, and also additional passenger amenities and special trains to meet the ensuing Puja rush, Mr R.R. Bhandari, General Manager, SER, said the zonal railway, was expecting to achieve a revenue target of Rs 4,800 crore for 2005-06, up from Rs 3,800 crore achieved during the previous fiscal. Some Rs 4,000 crore is expected from freight earnings alone.

The break-up for 2004-05, according to Mr Bhandari, was Rs 3,100 crore on account of freight and Rs 700 crore by way of passenger earnings. He said the plan was to achieve freight loading of 85 mt in the current fiscal against 75 mt moved in 2004-05. Asked whether the incremental revenue earning prospects could be dented owing to the recent hike in diesel prices, Mr Bhandari said: "Thanks to efficient system of operations, we have a built-in cushion of 4-5 per cent, which offsets the fuel price increases to that extent."

He expected the operating ratio to further improve to 83 per cent in the current fiscal from the existing 86 per cent, against the national average of 92 per cent. He said during the first five months of this fiscal, SER has loaded 34 mt of revenue earning freight, which was 5.01 mt more than that for the corresponding period of 2004-05, registering a growth of nearly 18 per cent.

Some 9.53 mt of raw materials loading to steel plants have been achieved, with other components being 8 mt of general merchandise, 7.49 mt of coal, 3.04 mt of export ore, 2.91 mt of finished products from steel plant and 1.76 mt of cement.

The Railway Board has fixed a loading target of 79 mt for the current fiscal. On the proposed special trains/augmentation of regular trains during the Pujas, he said SER would be running 62 pairs of Special Express trains towards different popular destinations as against the 39 trains run during 2004, thereby creating a total additional accommodation of 71,960 berths against the 47,328 berths last year, an increase of 52 per cent.

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