The Hindu Business Line : SW Rly posts 19.8% growth in freight loading

The Hubli-headquartered South Western Railway (SWR) has registered an originating freight loading of 38.05 million tonnes for 2005-06 as against 31.74 million tonnes in the previous financial year, recording a growth of 19.8 per cent.

Quoting the General Manager of SWR, Mr T.N. Perti, a press release said here on Friday that the zone has been performing consistently and exceedingly well despite limited resources and several constraints.

During 2005-06, SWR carried 9.68 crore passengers as against 8.21 crore in the previous fiscal, recording a growth of 17.93 per cent.

Time factor

Punctuality of passenger carrying trains has made significant improvements and has gone up to 99 per cent, which is above the target of 95 per cent fixed by the Railway Board. "Passenger amenities are uppermost on our agenda, and SWR is one of the first zones to provide all the minimum essential amenities as per the norms well within the target fixed by the Railway Board," he said.

During the last fiscal, the total originating earnings increased by 42.23 per cent over the previous year amounting to Rs 2,408.72 crore.

Till March 2006, SWR ran 3,008 special trains and attached 5,150 extra coaches to clear the seasonal rush as compared to 2,150 special trains and 3,407 extra coaches during the previous fiscal. Workshops in Hubli and Mysore have turned out 190 air-conditioned coaches as against the target of 168 coaches.

It is proposed to augment all long-distance trains with 24 coaches, he added.

SWR, which was created by amalgamating the Hubli division from South Central Railway and Bangalore and Mysore divisions from Southern Railway, became operational on April 1, 2003, with headquarters at Hubli in Dharwad district of Karnataka.