South Central Railway (SCR) has been witnessing a steady growth in number of passengers in the last few months from 122.42 lakh in January,148.19 lakh in February and to 179.68 lakh in March this year. This has resulted in it clocking the best ever monthly revenue of ₹410.53 crore in March with the previous best being ₹377.14 crore in January 2020, before the COVID pandemic hit, turning everything topsy-turvy.
In comparison, the number of passengers in January 2021 were 50.31 lakh, 56.19 lakh in February and 53.78 lakh in March with the corresponding revenues being ₹193.46 crore, ₹210.44 crore and ₹210.93 crore. The revenue this year in January has been ₹215.79 crore which shot up to ₹308.68 crore in February, informed senior officials on Friday.
Hundred per cent of the reserved trains have resumed services as also more than 90% of the trains passing through the zone these days. This is apart from special trains running on busy routes and augmentation of coaches in high wait-listed trains. Such has been the increasing demand that 127 coaches have been permanently augmented in 82 regular trains, mostly with extra 3 AC and sleeper coaches.
”About 49 3AC coaches were added additionally as against 31 sleeper coaches based on the patronage and demand from the passengers in some trains. Occupancy has been 101% in January, which increased to 119% in February and touched 120% in March. About 180 trains — 157 originating from the zone and another 26 passing through, connecting different places, have been notified as ‘summer specials’ this month to deal with the holidays rush,” said chief public relations officer Ch. Rakesh.
Free wi-fi
SCR has also now equipped about 588 stations with the wi-fi Internet across the zone with the Secunderabad zone topping the list with 132 stations, Guntakal 140, Vijayawada 119 and so on. A total of 174 stations in Telangana, 301 in Andhra Pradesh, 85 in Maharashtra and 28 in Karnataka have been brought under the wi-fi coverage.
Across the country, the high speed free wi-fi facility is available at 6,100 railway stations with 5,000 of these located in the rural areas providing connectivity to the nearby households benefitting the students and others, said railway officials.
’RailWire’ is available to any user with a smartphone with working mobile connection and it is free for 30 minutes at 1 MPBS speed. “For using the wi-fi facility further at ‘higher’ speed beyond 30 minutes, the user needs to choose a plan with higher speed by paying a fee varying from ₹10/day (for 5 GB @ 34 MBPS) to ₹75/30day (for 60 GB @ 34 MBPS) excluding GST. This can be purchased online,” they added.
