South Western Railway raked in Rs 3,840cr last fiscal

HUBLI: The South Western Railway (SWR) raked in Rs 3,840 crore in 2013-14, revealed Pradeep Kumar Saxena, general manager of SWR on Friday.
After hoisting the tricolour to mark Independence Day celebrations, organized by the headquarters offices of SWR at the new zonal headquarters administrative building here, he said SWR has been growing from strength to strength.It loaded 35.77 million tonnes of freight and ferried 190 million passengers last fiscal.
In the first four months of the current financial year, SWR carried 12.75 million tonnes of freight and 68 million passengers. Freight earnings up till July have been Rs 1,039 crore - 22.5% more than in the same period the previous year. Revenue from passenger tickets during the same period increased by 21.17%, said Saxena.
SWR has taken a giant leap by eliminating level crossings, thereby enhancing the safety of train operations. In 2013-14, it constructed a number of subways and closed 97 level crossings. Another 70 level crossings will be shut in 2014-15. Works in this regard are proceeding as per schedule, said Saxena.
To make tickets easily available, the unreserved ticketing system has been extended to cover 249 stations and reserved tickets can be obtained at 155 locations. Besides, 51 Jansadharan ticket booking sevaks have been appointed to issue unreserved tickets to passengers. Orders have been placed for 93 automatic ticket vending machines, which will be commissioned at 29 key stations under SWR's jurisdiction.
Saxena said stress is being laid on improving infrastructure and line capacity on various sections of SWR. In 2013-14, 237-km-long tracks, including 112 km of new lines, 85km of gauge conversion, 40 km of track doubling, six road overbridges and four underbridges were commissioned.
R P Pawar, deputy chief security commissioner, SWR, Neelima Saxena, president of SWR Women's Welfare Organization, K Harikrishnan, chief personnel officer, U Krishna Murthy, senior deputy general manager, Vashishta Johri, chief mechanical engineer, P Ganeswara Rao, chief operations manager and others were present.