Railways on slow track in July as earnings fall 6.6%

July proved to be a bad month for the Indian Railways, with total earnings falling short of the target. During the month, IR’s total earnings at Rs 10,628.87 crore was lower than the target of Rs 11,367.89 crore by an estimated 6.5 per cent.

This is not surprising. None of the 16 zonal railways could achieve their respective targets in passenger earnings. As a result, the shortfall in IR’s total passenger earning was 20.13 per cent at Rs 2,894.62 crore (Rs 3,623.99 crore). The biggest shortfall of 25.07 per cent at Rs 546.09 crore was recorded by the Northern Railway, followed by Western Railway 23.58 per cent (Rs 281.20 crore), East Coast Railway 22.02 per cent (Rs 80.09 crore), Central Railway 21.52 per cent (Rs 304.46 crore), South Eastern Railway 21.45 per cent (Rs 116.66 crore), NF Railway 20.85 per cent (Rs 92.83 crore) and Eastern Railway 20.83 per cent (Rs 160.21 crore). South East Central Railway recorded the lowest shortfall of 10.6 per cent at Rs 58.96 crore.

In freight earnings the picture is not as bad as the shortfall is a meagre 0.18 per cent at Rs 7,230.70 crore (Rs 7243.47 crore), with half of the zonal railways posting growth. North Eastern Railway recorded the highest growth of 38.56 per cent at Rs 18.9 crore, followed by North Central Railway with 15.14 per cent growth at Rs 97.64 per cent, East Central Railway 11.95 per cent (Rs 761.76 crore) and South Eastern Railway 10.06 per cent growth (Rs 837.39 crore).

Interestingly, the largest freight-loading zonal railway, South East Central Railway, posted negative growth of 2.26 per cent at Rs 1,174.34 crore. Another major freight-loading zonal railway, South Central Railway, posted a much higher negative growth of 19.26 per cent at Rs 524.45 crore. However, East Coast Railway, also a major freight-loading railway, posted positive growth of 7.26 per cent at Rs 893.36 crore.

The lowest growth of 1.62 per cent at Rs 529.92 crore was posted by Northern Railway. Southern Railway, 9.31 per cent at Rs 206.22 crore, and Western Railway, 3.16 per cent at Rs 832.56 crore too posted growth.

During the month IR’s sundry earnings too dropped by 5.62 per cent from the target, the actual being Rs 211.13 crore against the target of Rs 223.70 crore, while other coaching earnings posted an increase of 5.67 per cent at Rs 292.42 crore.

>santanu.sanyal@thehindu.co.in