South Central Railway eyes 8% growth this fiscal

South Central Railway (SCR) expects its revenues in the current fiscal to increase a modest 8 per cent to Rs 4,000 crore from Rs 3,700 crore achieved in 2003-04.

Addressing a press conference here, T Stanley Babu, SCR general manager, said, "The growth in revenue is mainly expected to come from freight loading. This year we expect the freight loads to increase from 44.5 million tonnes to 49 million tonnes."

SCR plans to start work on the second phase of the multi-modal transport system.

"The electrification up to Bhongir and doubling of lines to Manoharabad would be taken up once the railway board gives a green signal. The total cost is estimated to be around Rs 128 crore, which would be shared by the railways and the state government," he said.

The total allocation in the railway budget has seen a mere increase of Rs 12 crore for completion of the ongoing projects under SCR's purview. The allocations for this fiscal year were Rs 768 crore as compared to Rs 756 crore in 2003-04.

Babu said that among the important projects that would be taken up this year is the creation of 273 kilometres of new lines on the routes of Kakinada-Kotipalli, Munirabad-Nizamabad and Adilabad-Kinwat.

"Gauge conversion of over 1,000 km between Manoharabad-Nizamabad and Adilabad-Kinwat have also been proposed," he said.

According to the SCR general manager, new surveys for 18 new lines and surveys for another 22 lines would be taken up during the current fiscal.

The introduction of Sampark Kranti Express from Delhi to Secunderabad, extension of Hyderabad-Ernakulam Sabari to Kochuveli, increasing of frequency of 12 express trains would also be taken up during this financial year.

The SCR has allocated Rs 62 crore for new lines, Rs 103 crore for gauge conversion and Rs 135 crore for doubling of lines during the current financial year. SCR also plans to increase the budget for improving public amenities to Rs 32 crore from Rs 16 crore last year.

The SCR general manager expressed dissatisfaction over the MMTS operations in the city and said that he had talked to the authorities of the AP State Road Transport Corporation to provide shuttle services between those stations which had not been connected with transport facilities.