The Indian Railways has slipped in their targets of freight loading by over 10 million tonne (mt) of cargo in the first nine months of the current financial year. As per the latest figures, the Railways carried 357.26 million tonne of revenue-earning goods till the end of December 2001, which is 10.5 million tonne below the target of 367.75 million tonne.
The Railways has, however, bettered their last year's corresponding figure by 9.43 million tonne. It carried 347.83 million tonne of goods in the first nine months of the last fiscal.
A senior Railway Board official attributed the shortfall to the general slowdown in the economy saying although the Railways could not meet their target, aggressive marketing efforts by the different zones prevented the situation from getting worse. The target for the full year is 500 million tonne, 25 million tonne more than last year.
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Among the different zones, the South Eastern Railway contributed nearly half to the shortfall. Against a target of 142.80 million tonne, the zone returned a figure of 137.34 million tonne. This zone accounts for the highest cargo movement by a single zone in the network, carrying nearly two thirds of the total goods carried by the Railways.
The Eastern and Southern Railways were the other ones which missed their proportionate nine month targets significantly. Against a target of 61.30 million tonne, the Eastern Railway carried 56.84 million tonne cargo, while the Southern zone returned a figure of 18.66 million tonne, 2.34 million tonne off the target of 21 million tonne.