Increased coal loadings and new export-import commodities helped South Central Railway increase its freight earnings by over 23 per cent during the nine months of the current fiscal as compared to the year-ago period.
In the last three quarters, the zone raked in a freight earning of Rs 6,614 crore, as against Rs 5,359 crore in the corresponding period of last fiscal. Freight earnings account for almost 70 per cent of the total revenues of the zone.
In physical terms, the loadings increased 10 per cent to stand at 85.78 million tonnes during the period. Coal, which contributes to about 53 per cent of its total freight revenues, surged a corresponding 10 per cent to touch 45.6 million tonnes. Cement loading increased five per cent at 20 million tonnes.
SC Railway also managed to bag some new cargoes such as imported iron ore from Krishnapatnam port to Jindal Steel, export cement containers, stone chips from Balanagar and quartz from Veldurti.