Chennai: While Southern Railway, from April to December 2016, saw a 1.8 per cent decline in total earnings at Rs 5,505 crore, the Chennai division saw a 4.49 per cent decline in the total earnings, plummeting to Rs. 2,446 crore, compared to earnings in the same period in 2015.
While passenger earnings in the division have shown a slight increase to Rs 1,383.48 crore from April to December 2016, from Rs. 1,327.56 crore in the corresponding period a year ago, the freight and sundry earnings have seen a decline, according to data from the division.
Freight earnings, which took a hit across the nation and in zonal railways, recorded earnings of Rs 793.93 crore, a decline of 14.1 per cent from Rs 925.21, earned in a corresponding period the previous year.
“Passenger earnings have increased but the increase in passengers ferried has not seen the expected increase of about 5 –6 percent, which is the same case across the various zonal railways in the country,” said an official, speaking of passenger earnings. Overall, 600 million passengers were carried this year till December at the zonal level.
The official added that freight loading and transportation has not seen the desired demand despite it being a cheaper and comfortable means of ferrying loads as compared to road transport.
In the FY 2015-2016, the divisional railways earned Rs 1221.98 crore through freight, Rs 1791.78 crore through passenger earnings, and made a total earning of Rs 3421.08 crore.
