The financial performance of the Mysore railway division has taken a knock due to the ban on iron ore export, though it has fared well in terms of volume of goods and passengers carried in the current financial year.
Cumulative earnings of the Mysore division as on January 31, 2012 was Rs. 395.61 crore for 2011-12 against Rs. 485.8 crore during the corresponding period last fiscal.
Freight earnings
Freight generated bulk of the revenue and contributed Rs. 261.91 crore to the total earnings this year against Rs. 332.65 crore during the corresponding period last fiscal.
However, in terms of volume, the division exceeded the target and improved its performance, according to Anup Dayanand Sadhu, senior divisional commercial manager, Mysore division of South Western Railways.
He told The Hindu that iron ore constituted a major chunk of railway freight and the division carried around three million tonnes till January 31 as against the nearly two million tonnes carried during the same period last fiscal. The transportation of iron ore alone earned the division Rs. 138.55 crore this year, while it earned Rs. 180.50 crore in the corresponding period last year.
The division loaded 775 rakes of freightagainst 529 last year. But despite the improvement in tonnage carried and freight hauled, there was no financial gain because of the ban on iron ore export. This is due to the difference in cost levied for transporting iron ore for domestic use compared to the cost on transporting the same material for export.
For import and export
“While the Railways charges Rs. 18 lakh per rake of ore meant for domestic use, the charges are around Rs. 68 lakh per rake for iron ore meant for export; hence, the negative growth in earnings, despite improvement in volume,” explained Mr. Sadhu.
Following the ban, not a single rake of iron ore has been carried for export since April 2011. The bulk of ore meant for domestic use goes to Salem and Jindal Steel. The bulk of freight earnings comes from transportation of iron ore, petroleum and oil, cement and sugar.
However, on other parameters — such as punctuality, safety and passenger earnings — the division has continued to improve. The data compiled for cumulative passenger earnings for the April to December period was Rs. 116 crore against last year's earnings of Rs. 105 crore. This shows an improvement of nearly 11.11 per cent over last year's figures.
There was also a 16 per cent growth in the number of passengers carried during the April to December period this fiscal. Likewise, the cumulative travel ticket examiner earnings increased to Rs. 1.92 crore for the April-December period compared to Rs. 1.87 crore earned the previous fiscal. This was attributed to the increase in ticket checking and awareness drive launched to curb ticketless travelling.
The division had also achieved a punctuality rate of 92.05 per cent for passenger trains and 89.93 per cent for Mail and Express trains.
