SCR set to accomplish Mission-700

Undeterred by the rain havoc, which may have slowed down its march on Mission-700, the South Central Railway (SCR) seems all set to achieve the target of 60 million tonnes freight loading set for the zone.

The Indian Railways as per the Mission-700 had set for itself a target of 700 million tonnes freight for 2005-06 that was later revised to 670 million tonnes. But the target for SCR remains at 60 million tonnes instead of proportionately reducing it to 58.25 million tonnes as per the revised target.

It may be recalled that SCR had achieved a record freight loading of 51 million tonnes for the year 2004-05.

The total freight loading achieved by SCR until October in the current fiscal stood at 30.223 million tonnes as against the 27.206 million tonnes achieved during the corresponding period last year.

While coal and cement continue to account for a major share of the cargo at about 69 per cent of the total freight, cement recorded an increase of 10.68 per cent from the 9.055 million tonnes loaded in the current fiscal until October 2005 as against the 8.181 million tonnes loaded during the same period last year.

Petroleum products (POL) recorded a drastic fall by about 29.70 per cent to 0.362 million tonnes from the 0.515 million tonnes registered during April-October 2004. However, other goods category saw an increase of 89.60 per cent, from 1.313 million tonnes to 2.490 million tonnes, since the last fiscal .

Steel plants' raw material saw an improvement in loading from 0.118 million tonnes during October 2004 to 0.134 million tonnes during October 2005, an increase of 13.6 per cent. An increase by over 50 per cent was seen in the freight of fertilisers, from 0.170 million tonnes during October 2004 to 0.255 million tonnes during October 2005.

SCR in a bid to bring down the cost of logistics and allow parties to plan their consignments from the godown itself last month commenced work on the construction of a 15,000-metric tonne capacity warehousing facility at Sanathnagar in Hyderabad at a cost of Rs 5 crore.

It plans to construct similar godowns on the public-private partnership model at Karimnagar, Warangal, Bhongir, Ghatkesar, Peddapalli, Lingampalli and Cherlapally.

SCR's freight earnings (apportioned) for the current year until October 2005 stood at Rs 1,945.56 crore, an increase of 25.59 per cent from the Rs 1,553.59 crore earned during the corresponding period last year.