Indian Railways has not commissioned any new lines with its safety system Kavach till October this year, the performance report mentions. Against this, 10 km were commissioned for the seven-month period from April – October of last year.

“Commissioning of Kavach is Nil till October 31, compare(d) to 10 km last fiscal during same period and against the target of 637 km till Oct 31, 2023,” the report mentioned.

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According to the Indian Railways Performance Highlight, upto October 2023 (Punctuality and Infrastructure Creation), the new line setting up was 186.65 km, the doubling of lines was 1019.69 km, and gauge conversion (from narrow to broad gauge) was 96 km. A cumulative of 1302.34 km was covered till Oct-end, at least 25 per cent-odd lesser than last year (across these categories) which covered 1728.55 km ( that included new line laying of 52.8 kms, gauge conversion across 102 km, and double lining: 1573.75 km).

cause of concern

“It is cause of concern in view of additional expenditure on this account during the same period and less commissioning,” the report mentioned.

Punctuality across trains had also dropped, the report added. Only 73 per cent of the trains are on-time, against 83.5 per cent last year.

In fact, across other categories of infrastructure building Railways have not been upto last year’s numbers. For instance, 8 Gati Shakti terminals were set up till Oct, 38 per cent last than last year (13 were set up in 7M FY23).

As per an earlier statement of the Railways, on cumulative basis freight loading of 887.25 million tonnes (mt), up 31.61 mt or up 4 per cent yoy. Last year’s freight loading was 855.64 mt.

Railways earned ₹95,929.30 crore, up ₹3584.03 crore as compared to the same period of the last year.

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During October, originating freight loading was 129.03 mt,up 8 per cent over the same month last year. Freight revenue stood at ₹14231.05 crore, up 6.57 per cent. During the month, freight loading included 64.82 mt of coal, 14.81 mt in iron ore, 5.74 mt in pig iron and finished steel, 6.32 mt in cement, 4.77 mt in clinker, 3.62 mt in foodgrains, 5.72 mt in fertilizers, 4.35 mt in mineral oil, 7.15 mt in containers while 8.55 mt was in other goods category.

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