BHUBANESWAR: Accelerating its performance against all odds, East Coast Railway (ECoR) has recorded four per cent more freight load and rise in the percentage of passengers in current fiscal compared to last year.
The Railway Zone also recorded 10 per cent higher earnings than last year at Rs 12,775.95 crore, sources said. ECoR has loaded 146.13 million tonnes of freight and carried 74.35 million passengers. "Our Operating Ratio, a key indicator of profitability, is also 62.39 per cent, the best among all zones despite massive setbacks imposed by cyclone Fani and Bulbul," an ECoR official said.
ECoR has set a target of loading 202 MT by fiscal-end. Officials said efforts are on to achieve the target to make the railway zone first in the country to reach the 200 MT barrier in loading performance.
ECoR is working on various development projects worth Rs 33,084 crore. Plans are afoot to invest around Rs 4,000 crore more in these projects in near future.They said ECoR is also taking all measures to increase number of passengers. “We have introduced a unique Double Decker Uday Express from Visakhapatnam to Vijaywada and a Sewa Express from Bhubaneswar to Nayagarh Town.
Khurda Road-Nayagarh Town passenger has been also been extended up to Mahipur through a new line. We ran 16 special trains during peak travel seasons and augmented berth capacity by adding 1,480 coaches to existing trains till December-end. On public demand, 11 new stoppages have been given in existing routes,” the officials said.