The sight of passengers jostling their way into packed trains during Dasara vacation was missing this year. With South Central Railway (SCR) restricting entry to only those with a confirmed ticket in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the numbers fell drastically, like in the rest of the country.
23 specials run
Along with the 18 regular special trains originating and terminating within the zone in the last few months in lieu of the regular train movement, the zonal railways had pressed into service 23 festival specials within its region during the nine-day festivities. Nearly 52,000 passengers made use of the facility.
This was up from the figures of 32,500 passengers travelling in the 18 regular special trains ever since the lockdown was lifted. But, passenger revenues of ₹13-15 crore during these festival times dwindled to ₹2.52 crore this year, informed senior officials wishing to remain anonymous.
“In the previous years, if 10.5 lakh passengers used to travel daily by 36 regular trains daily, this used to increase to 13 lakh passengers during the festivals through 46 festival special trains per day. We must take into consideration that the passenger count in reserved coaches was 1.5-2 lakh only. Rest of the passengers were travelling jam-packed in four unreserved coaches,” they pointed out.
If the usual sleeper coach with 72 berths carried 10-20% more during festivals despite passengers not having a confirmed ticket, the unreserved coaches saw more than double of the 90-seater capacity as railway officials too were “lenient”. “COVID-19 changed everything. We could not allow such crowding anymore and the loss in passenger revenue was huge,” they said.
Freight loading up
However, as Railway Board chairman V.K. Yadav had mentioned during a media interaction the previous day, freight loading for October surpassed the freight loading of the corresponding period in the previous year showing continued “positive momentum”. It has recorded freight loading of 8.489 metric tonnes compared to the loading of 8.224 MTs recorded during the same time, despite the pandemic.
This is the second consecutive month where the monthly freight loading in the current financial year has surpassed the levels recorded during the last financial year. More importantly, upswing in the growth in freight loading continues to be broad-based with higher levels of loading being witnessed in almost all commodities, except coal.
It has recorded a growth of 35% increase in cement (2.7 MTs), foodgrains and fertilizers are growing at the rate of 57% and 32% (0.776 MTs and 0.661 MTs, respectively). Container loading, too, has also increased considerably by 25% (0.116 MTs), said General Manager Gajanan Mallya and complimented the sincere efforts of both zonal and divisional teams on Tuesday.
