South Central Railway achieved a major milestone by surpassing Rs. 5,000 crores in Originating Passenger Revenue for the first time in its history. The Zone earned Rs. Rs 5,000.81 Crore in Originating Passenger Revenue, which is Rs. 881.37 Crore more than the previous best earnings registered in 2019-20 i.e., 21% higher than Rs 4,119.44 Crores.
More Details:
- This new milestone in the passenger segment of the Zone has been possible through collective efforts of the staff along with better coordination between various departments.
- The Zone has been reviewing the passenger trends on a continuous basis since the introduction of express and passenger trains post Covid lockdown. SCR was amongst the first zones across Indian Railways in re-introducing 100% Mail Express Trains in its jurisdiction.
- This has been reinforced by introducing special trains, augmenting coaches (both permanently and temporarily) and increasing the frequency of regular trains among others.
- Keeping in view the continuous demand in some trains, the Zone has permanently augmented 200 coaches in various Express trains resulting in greater patronage for these trains. In addition, to meet the seasonal demand of the passengers, 200 additional coaches have also been temporarily augmented during the current year.
- In fact, the passenger demand has been monitored on a day-to-day basis and extra coaches have been attached, wherever feasible, to meet extra demand. In fact, 10,539 coaches have been attached to Express trains on a day-to-day basis to clear waitlisted passengers, due to which 9,83,559 passengers got confirmed berths resulting in additional earnings of Rs.81.28 Cr to Railways.
- Similarly, to meet the additional demand of the passengers during festive and holiday seasons, 3,543 special trains were operated Dasara, Diwali, Sabarimalai, Christmas/New Year, Sankranthi, Holi etc, in which 30.42 lakh passengers were transported, resulting in additional earnings of Rs.219.80 Cr.
- Further, the year also witnessed the introduction of new trains as well. The pride of Indian Railways – Vande Bharat – has been introduced between Secunderabad – Visakhapatnam – Secunderabad.
- Besides, 7 pairs of new train services were introduced between Kacheguda-Medak, Akola-Akot and Bidar-Kalaburagi. Frequency of Nanded-Pune-Nanded Express has been increased from Bi-weekly to Daily.
- For the comfort of the passengers, 8 pairs of Express trains have been converted to LHB rakes, which also led to more number of people availing the service due to higher carrying capacity of LHB trains.
- All these measures have led to increased patronage of the passengers towards rail services. This is reflected in the 123% occupancy of the Express trains in the Zone.
Shri Arun Kumar Jain, General Manager, South Central Railway has congratulated the entire team of SCR for registering Rs 5,000 Crore passenger revenue in the current financial year. He stated that the efficient coordination between various departments and effective utilisation of available resources has resulted in the Zone achieving the best performance and this gives an extreme satisfaction in leading this premiere Zone. He stated that the Zone has always given prime importance to meet the passenger demand and would continue to take all necessary measures so as to meet their travel requirements.
Source: South Central Railway- Press Release | Image Credit (representational): MoR
