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The originating freight traffic of the Hubli division of South Western Railway is down 11.81 per cent at 29.57 million tonnes in the just-concluded financial year (FY) 2010-11, against the 33.53 million tonnes clocked in the same period last year.
The Railway officials attribute this shortfall due to volatility in the demand for iron ore in the global market, and also due to the ban on iron ore movement imposed by the Karnataka Government.
Earnings
As for the freight earnings, Hubli division achieved 45.42 per cent higher earnings at Rs 2,189.50 crore in FY 2010-11, against Rs 1,505.59 crore achieved in the same period last year.
This was achieved by a healthy mix of commodity freight traffic. During FY 2010-11, Hubli division ferried 3.355 million tonnes of iron ore and earned Rs 570.50 crore, compared to 12.588 million tonnes and earnings of Rs 626.33 crore recorded in previous year.
“In order to fill the shortfall in earnings, the Hubli division took the challenge and doubled the domestic traffic movement. This helped us in achieving 29.57 million tonnes in originating freight traffic,” said the SWR's Hubli division press release.
Iron ore exports
Iron ore exports were down 76.2 per cent at 3.35 tonnes in FY 2010-11, against 14.11 tonnes in the previous year. Iron ore domestic traffic was up 47.3 per cent at 12.58 tonnes in FY 2010-11, against 8.54 tonnes in the previous year.
Coal movement was up 57.7 per cent at 6.33 tonnes in FY 2010-11, against 4.01 tonnes the previous year. Maize was up 270 per cent at 0.54 tonnes in FY 2010-11, against 0.14 tonnes the previous year. Sugar was up 51.8 per cent at 0.58 tonnes in FY 2010-11, against 0.38 tonnes.
Other commodities were down 2.3 per cent at 6.18 tonnes in FY 2010-11, against 6.32 tonnes in previous year.
Passenger traffic
Hubli division registered a 7.36 growth in passenger traffic. The Railways ferried 3.87 crore passengers from April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2011, against 3.60 crore ferried in the same period last year.
As for earnings, Railways achieved growth of 8.59 per cent at Rs 193.78 crore.
The overall punctuality of trains on the Hubli division has been 97 per cent in 2010-11. Efforts are being made by constant monitoring to achieve 100 per cent punctuality not only for Mail/Express trains, but also passenger trains.
During the fiscal year 2010-11, the Hubli division achieved best-ever Box-N releases of 669 rakes during the month of January 2011 (previous best was 652 rakes during December 2010) — an increase by 3 per cent.
A total of 1,728 rakes of coal from Mormugao Port were loaded during the year 2010-11, surpassing 1,262 rakes loaded the previous year.
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