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HYDERABAD, April 9

THE South Central Railway (SCR) has recorded total earnings of Rs 4,014 crore in the financial year ended March 31, 2003 against Rs 3,797 crore last fiscal. With the various railway zones under restructure process, the SCR may see total revenues of Rs 3,720.38 crore in 2003-2004 with about one-fifth of its operations under the Hubli division carved out into another zone.

The General Manager of South Central Railway, Mr S.M. Singla, told newspersons here on Wednesday that there has been a significant increase (about 5.7 per cent) in the overall financial performance of the zone due to various steps undertaken to streamline and bring in operational efficiencies.

The General Manager said that the Railways had allocated a sum of Rs 881.27 crore for 2003-2004 as against Rs.750 crores last year. In addition to this hike, the Railways has earmarked Rs 46 crore for the Multi Modal Transport project and Rs 30 crore for other works. This reflects an overall budget increase of about Rs 200 crore over last year.

While SCR transported about 210 million people during the financial year, the freight loading touched 62.3 million tonnes against 60.4 million tonnes last year. The operating ratio of the zone during 2002-2003 was estimated at about 87.4 per cent. This was marginally lower compared to 88.34 per cent in the previous year.

Highlighting the SCR's achievements, Mr Singla said line work between Pullampet-Gooty inaugurated by the Prime Minister through a satellite uplink in December 2002 marked the launch of the national Rail Vikas Yojana, a Rs 15,000-crore project. "While Rs 10 crore was thus far spent on the project in the SCR region, we have earmarked Rs 100 crore this fiscal," he said.

SCR has initiated work on a stretch of 393 km for broad gauge track renewal with a total outlay of Rs 354 crore. Further, Rs 15 crore was spent for passenger amenities including remodelling of stations, retiring rooms, waiting halls, extension of platform shelters, foot-over-bridge. Further, a special safety fund of Rs 200 crore was utilised in the year for the safety-related works including track renewal, bridge works and modernisation of signalling systems.

After commissioning the newly converted Nizamabad-Mudkhed broad gauge section that was opened late last year, the entire stretch between Nizamabad and Manmad stands connected on a single gauge facilitating direct trains to Mumbai. Further, the SCR has allocated Rs 30 crore during the current financial year for gauge conversion between Secunderabad and Mudkhed.

While 2002-2003 saw the introduction of several new trains, the SCR has drawn up plans to launch some more trains. In addition to these, since it is felt that the Railways would benefit by commissioning long distance trains, some of the long distance trains will be routed through Secunderabad instead of originating here.

The SCR garnered Rs 105 crore during the financial year through the sale of scrap against Rs 82.30 crore in the previous year. This, the GM claimed, was the highest recorded in the last six years.

Factoring the expansion plan of the SCR, the Railway Board has cleared the appointment of about 5,990 employees in various categories, particularly in the class IV staff. While a majority of them, about 5,000, will be for the region, rest of them will be recruited by the other boards since some of the areas like Hubli and Nanded have been shifted to other zones.

With regard to extending Railway reservation facility to the eSeva centres, a decision to this effect is yet to be taken. The matter is under consideration with the board, Mr Singla explained.

As a part of the 48th Railway Week celebrations, and to coincide with the 150th year of Indian Railways, about 25 of the senior-most living retired Railway employees in the zone will be felicitated, Mr Singla said.

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