Railways’ total earnings surpass target for 2010-11

Operational problems due to agitations notwithstanding, Railways’ total earnings for 2010—11 have surpassed the target set for the fiscal by about Rs 100 crore.

“It was a difficult year for us as rail roko agitation hit us badly. But we have not only achieved the total earnings target, but have surpassed the earning figures by approximately Rs 100 crore,” Railway Board Chairman Mr Vivek Sahi told reporters here.

He said as against the target of Rs 94,742 crore, the approximate earnings of the public sector behemoth stood at Rs 94,850 crore for 2010—11.

Out of the total earnings, freight earnings stood at approximately Rs 62,900 crore as against the target of Rs 62,489.33 crore and passenger earnings stood at approximately Rs 26,007 as against the target of Rs 26,126.47 crore, Mr Sahi said, adding, the figures would go up in the final calculations.

He attributed the growth in earnings to positive trends witnessed in coal loading as as well as in loading of food grains and fertilizers.

Railways have “gained confidence” of laying 25,000 km of new lines by 2020 as per its vision document as it put up the “best performance” so far by constructing 709 km of new lines this fiscal, the Railway Board Chairman said.

He said overall train punctuality has improved to 80 per cent but remains an area of concern particularly in the Northern region where today it was reported at around 30 per cent. In the Mumbai suburban section, he said the punctuality rate is around 98 per cent.

Accidents during the year also came down by 15 per cent from 165 to 140 and accidents in unmanned railway crossing reduced by 35 per cent, Mr Sahi said.

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