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South Western Railway (SWR) has managed to recover freight volume during the financial year 2011-12.
According to Mr A K Mital, General Manager, South Western Railway, the Railways has demonstrated ‘remarkable' turnaround in its performance both in physical and financial terms especially despite ban on iron ore exports in Karnataka.
“The SWR's freight volume is down 7.24 per cent at 33.17 million tonnes as against 35.76 million tonnes carried in the same period last year.
SWR managed to recover some of its lost freight volume by carrying other commodities coal, food grains and few quantities of iron ore for domestic use,” he added.
The number of passengers carried by SWR has gone up by 7.41 per cent at 184.70 millions during the year as against 171.95 millions in the previous year.
As for the originating passenger earnings it is up 8.32 per cent at Rs 1,155.47 crore compared to Rs 1,066.75 crore in the previous year.
Special trains to avoid rush
Mr Mital said to clear rush of passengers, 5,457 special trains were run and 7,023 extra coaches were attached during the financial year 2011-12. There is an improvement of punctuality of trains on this railway as compared to 83 per cent punctuality in 2009-10. Punctuality has improved to 95 per cent in 2011-12.
In order to provide good quality of food at reasonable price, ‘Jan Ahar' outlets have been commissioned at Yesvantpur, Bangalore City and Hubli Railway Stations, said Mr Mital.
Rail Ahar outlets
In addition to this, six ‘Rail Ahar' outlets have also been commissioned, three at Bangalore City, two at Hubli Station and one Bangalore Cantt. Stations, he added.
Passenger amenities
Mr Mital said to improve passenger amenities; information technology is being used in a great way by installing audio video enquiry terminals, digital display boards, and coach locating guiding system.
For easy availability of tickets, unreserved ticketing system (UTS) has been extended to cover 242 stations and reserved tickets can now be obtained from 137 locations.
The total number of accidents in SWR in 2011-12 is seven. All the accidents are at unmanned level crossings involving goods train. There has been no accident involving passenger trains.
Further, bulk of the accidents is on unmanned Level crossings.
“On this railway, 581 unmanned level crossings are there. It is planned to be eliminated by 2015. During 2011-12, 115 unmanned level crossings have already been eliminated.
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