The Railways have managed to stay on target in freight loading and total revenues from all sources in the first five months of the current fiscal and have in fact exceeded the target in freight loading in the period, latest figures released by the ministry show.
192.46 million tonne of revenue earning freight was moved between April and August this year as against a target of 190.46 million tonne. The figure for last year was 181.74 million tonne, which means that the incremental loading for the first five months of this year has been 10.72 per cent.
In the same period, the revenue earnings of the Railways rose 7.16 per cent over last year at Rs 14,251.8 crore, but were marginally below target (0.74 per cent), mainly on account of a slip of 0.05 per cent in freight earnings and shortfall in other coaching and miscellaneous earnings.
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The freight earnings figures for August are the biggest worry as they show a decline of 1.5 per cent in the month despite clocking spectacular growth in the first quarter. Passenger earnings in the month rose by a healthy nine per cent, thus cushioning the loss in freight.
In freight loading, the Railways are 0.30 per cent off target in August, but for the first five months they have managed to clock a growth of 10.72 per cent, which is 1.96 per cent above target. The growth is attributed to the better performance in the first quarter.
Coal is a major worry with the average leads for the commodity slipping by 13 km from the target in the month, mainly on account of greater demand for the low-ash better quality imported coal, which is being pumped into the country from China. The two meeting of the zonal Railways' general managers that concluded on Tuesday also discussed the issue.
As per the figures released, foodgrains, fertilisers, raw materials, iron and steel and cement were the other commodities that clocked negative growth in August. In cumulative terms also all the above mentioned commodities other than cement have not been able to reach the targets for the first five months.
But senior railway officials sought to downplay the trend saying, "While the performance in some traditional sectors like coal, cement and iron and steel may not be bullish, we hope to make up for the lack in demand through the aggressive marketing effort in whitegoods sector."