RailEnquiry

South Central Railway (SCR), one of the high-performing zones of Indian Railway on Tuesday announced that it had handled a record 194 million originating passengers between April and September, 2012, up 2.3 per cent from 189 million passengers ferried in the same six-month period last year.Also, SCR handled 53.1 million tonnes of freight against a target of 53.2 million tonnes (MT), a growth of 9.7 per cent over last year, comprising mainly of coal, cement, with foodgrain, fertilizers, containers and petro products accounting for the remaining portion of freight segment. The growth in freight loading was mainly aided by the spurt in the loading at Krishnapatnam and Kakinada ports.An official release said the zone, that currently ferries an average of 10.75 lakh originating passengers daily, had registered a growth in passenger earnings of 8.4 per cent, with Rs. 1,071 crore, compared to Rs. 987 crore last year. Gross originating earnings of passengers and freight together, on SCR grew at 25 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal, up Rs. 945 crore to Rs. 4,679 crore.Coal accounted for the largest chunk of freight loading from Singareni Collieries, Western Coalfields and imported coal from Krishnapatnam and Kakinada Sea Ports - at about 29.4 MT against 24.1 MT in the first half of last year, representing a 22 per cent growth on SCR. Cement too showed an increase from plants of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra.