RailEnquiry

East Coast Railway(ECoR) has registered 11.67 per cent growth with its originating freight earnings at Rs 8,079.08 crore in 2011-12 as against Rs 7,234.64 crore recorded in 2010-11.The growth in freight earnings is despite recurring disruptions on the key revenue generating Kottavalasa-Kirandul (KK) line due to the Naxalite activities.The zonal railway has also achieved an all time high freight loading target of 120.77 million tonnes in 2011-12, 10.8 per cent increase over 108.99 million tonnes in 2010-11. ECoR claimed it was the only major zonal railway to achieve freight loading target in 2011-12. “It (freight loading target) has been accomplished despite extremely adverse conditions of disruptions to train services on the KK line due to left wing extremist activities. As a matter of fact, KK line which loads over 15 million tonnes in a year has remained closed for more than a month in different spells because of these externalities”, said Indra Ghosh, General Manager, ECoR.He was speaking on the occasion of the 57th Railway Week function here.On the passenger traffic front, ECoR carried 86.16 million passengers in 2011-12 as against 79.37 million in 2010-11, recording growth of nine per cent. The regional railway has achieved an operating ratio (the figure that indicates how much the railway spends for every Rs 100 earned) of 45.62 against the target of 45.68 .“In 2011-12, ECoR has introduced seven new trains connecting Odisha. The Railways will shortly be in a position to open Lanjigarh-Junagarh new line and Khurda Road-Begunia new line of the 289-km, long-delayed Khurda Road-Bolangir rail link project”, said an ECoR release.Meanwhile, planning work for doubling of the Puri-Delang section is also at an advanced stage.