The Waltair division of the East Coast Railway (ECoR) achieved its highest growth ever with a total earning of INR 6265.28 crore in 2013-14 financial, up 11% from the 2012-13 financial.
Participating in the 59th Railway Week celebrations to commemorate the chugging out of the 1st train on April 16, 1853, between Bori Bunder (Mumbai) and Thane, here on Wednesday, Anil Kumar, divisional manager, Waltair, said the division achieved the feat due to the hard work and dedication of thousands of railway staff across the division. Explaining the performance highlights for 2013-14, he said on the freight loading front, the division had achieved an originating loading of 52.56 mt, making it one of the few in the Indian Railways (IR) to have an originating loading in excess of 50 mt.
The earnings on account of loading were INR 5844.35 crore, 11% more than 2012-13 earnings mainly due to increase in loading of iron ore, gypsum, alumina and steel, among others.
Meanwhile, the originating passenger traffic in 2013-14 was 33.80 million, which was 3% higher than the pervious year's traffic of 32.94 million. Correspondingly, the originating passenger earnings in 2013-14 stood at INR 366.51 crore, 17% higher than the 2012-13 earnings of INR 312.96 crore.
In order to clear the passenger rush, especially during holidays and weekends, a total of 87 special trains were run for 445 trips and 168 extra coaches attached to various express trains running through the division.
In order to meet the increased passenger traffic, direct train services to different destinations from Visakhapatnam, including 5 new trains, were also started in 2013-14 apart from increasing the frequency of four pairs of trains.