The Mysore Railway Division's earnings for the 2013-14 fiscal registered a negative growth owing to the ban on iron ore mining, but its passenger earnings and performance on other parameters registered a positive growth.
The overall earnings of the division for 2013-14 was INR 477.89 crore, while the previous year's earnings was INR 566 crore.
The drop in earnings was due to the cascading effect of the ban on mining as the iron ore transportation contributes more than 80% of the cargo revenue for the division.
The goods transport earnings a bulk of which is by transporting iron was INR 221 crore during the year just ended, as against INR 353 crore of the previous year, Divisional Railway Manager Rajkumar Lal said.
In terms of tonnage, Lal said that while the division transported about 4.34 million tonnes (mt) of iron ore during 2012-13, it could transport only about 0.96 mt of ore during 2013-14. However, the passenger earnings of the division increased from INR 158 crore during 2012-13 to INR 196.75 crore during 2013-14, recording an increase of nearly 25% over the previous year.
In terms of number of passengers, the division crossed the target. As against the nearly 4.77 lakh originating passengers during the previous fiscal, the division recorded 5.4 crore originating passengers during the year under review, accounting for an increase of 13.18%.
The parcel earnings of the division increased from INR 10 crore in 2012-13 to INR 12.5 crore during 2013-14.
Lal said that "With an increase in the line-capacity due to the ongoing track-doubling work in different parts of the division, we will be able to accommodate more trains. We are planning new lines at five stations, including Savanur, Gubbi and Yelvigi, which will eliminate bottlenecks at crossings and help augment the revenue, apart from enhancing efficiency."
Freight earnings in the future was likely to go up, cosequent to completion of the doubling work between Arsikere and Chikjajur, which was an important corridor and the track utilisation was saturated and in excess of 100% due to heavy traffic.
According to Lal, Once completed, this would not only eliminate the traffic clog but also facilitate operation of more trains.
He said, with the Supreme Court relaxing the ban on iron ore mining, the Mysore Division was hopeful of enhancing its freight earnings to give a boost to its overall performance in the current fiscal.