Title - SR sees 12 pc jump in freight traffic

Southern Railways (SR) has, for the first-half of the current fiscal, has reported a 12.07 per cent increase in freight movement in terms of tonnage over its target for the period and a 10.92 per cent increase over the same period last year.   The freight movement jumped from 10.912 million tonnes to 12.104 million tonnes.   The freight movement in tonnage has, however, suffered a significant setback in certain commodities.   Food grain movement during the first half fell by 23.36 per cent over the corresponding figure last year.   Total food grain movement during the first half of the fiscal was 0.574 million tonnes (mt) against 0.749 mt during the first half of the previous fiscal.   P Raveendran, the deputy chief operations manager (freight), Southern Railways, said: “The fall in the food grain movement has been mainly due to lower procurement by Tamil Nadu government. This is partly due to certain policy changes in the procurement procedures as well as fall due to drought conditions in the state.”   Similarly petroleum oil and lubricant (POL) movement during the first-half of the fiscal also fell by 14.37 per cent when compared with the corresponding period last year.   Total POL movement during the first half was 2.462 mt against 2.875 mt during the same period last fiscal.   “We expect a further fall in the POL handled by SR. The new pipeline of BPCL connecting Cochin and Karur has taken away this traffic. Further fall would be due to the new pipeline that is expected to be commissioned this November,” he said.   Coal movement witnessed an increase of almost a third both against target and previous year’s achievement.   Total coal movement was to the tune of 6.611 mt against a target of 4.945 mt and 4.905 mt moved during the same period last year.   Raveendran said the new power plant at Neyveli commissioned by ST CMS moved around seven lakh tonnes of coal through Southern Railway.   “Further the coal moved by Tamil Nadu Electricity Board from the harbour also went up during the first half of the current fiscal,” he said.   Overall earning from freight movement during the first half registered a marginal increase in financial terms.   The total earnings of Southern Railway from freight movement was Rs 481.20 crore against Rs 470.58 crore earned during the first half of the previous financial year.   Raveendran said the overall growth for the whole year was expected to remain buoyant and SR was expecting a growth of 10 per cent in freight traffic during the current fiscal.