NE BUSINESS BUREAU
CHENNAI, APR 2
The Southern Railway consists of six divisions – Chennai, Tiruchirappalli, Salem, Madurai, Thiruvananthapuram and Palghat has achieved a robust growth in passenger traffic, freight transport and also originating freight loading during the last financial year, which concluded on March 31, 2023, says a release here on Sunday.
- Generated a highest ever revenue of Rs. 6345 Crores in the passenger segment in FY 2022-23 and recorded 80% growth over last FY
- Record all time high freight earnings of Rs. 3637.86 Crores in FY 2022-23 – An increase of 30% over last year’s earnings
- Originating Freight loading of 37.94 million tonnes surpasses last year’s loading by 24%
The release said financial year 2022-23 has concluded on a positive note for Southern Railway with the zone touching remarkable milestones on the freight and passenger segment.
Significant growth in Passenger Traffic
Southern Railway, being a passenger-friendly zone, has been taking persistent efforts to handle the ever increasing traffic volumes by operating reserved/unreserved, passenger trains and special trains during peak/festival seasons.
During the financial year 2022-23, Southern Railway generated a highest ever revenue of Rs.6345 Crore in the passenger segment and has recorded growth of 80% over last financial year earning of Rs.3539.77 crores, surpassing the previous best of Rs.5225 Crore which had been achieved in the financial year 2019-2020 and it has been surpassed by 21%.
A total of 640 million passengers had travelled during 2022-2023 witnessing an increase of 88.5% compared to 339.6 million passengers during 2021-2022.
Maintains 92% punctuality in train operation
On the punctuality front, Southern Railway has achieved the Railway Board target of 92%.
Southern Railway has taken various passenger friendly initiatives in ticketing services which includes introducing 239 new Automatic Ticket Vending Machine (ATVM) across various railway stations and improving various features of UTS on mobile app and creating awareness about its utility amongst passengers.
Many ‘firsts’ in the freight segment:
Southern Railway has achieved an originating loading of 37.94 Million tonnes in FY 2022-23 which is 2.20 Million tonnes or 6 % more than the target set by Railway Board. Significantly, on the freight segment, the zone has generated highest ever revenue of Rs.3637.86 crores, surpassing last year (2021-22) earnings by 30% and the previous best revenue of Rs.3059 crores in 2018-19 by 19%.
Milestones achieved by Southern Railway in FY 2022-2023
- In March 2023, highest ever loading was achieved in a single month of 4.05 MT,
- Highest ever loading of Petroleum (5.2 MT)
- Highest ever Food grain loading (3.23 MT)
- Highest ever Automobile loading of 0.78 million tonnes
- Highest ever originating NTKM (Net Tonne Kilometers) of 19,400 Million tonne kilometer and
- Highest ever average lead of originating freight- 520 km.
