SWR registers development in passenger, freight traffic

22 October 2012 | Hubli

 

South Western Railway (SWR) whose freight earnings had dipped owing to ban on export of iron ore and mining, has registered a significant improvement both in passenger and freight traffic in the first six months of the financial year.

Speaking at the 13th Zonal Railway Users’ Consultative Committee (ZRUCC) meeting at the Railway Officers’ Club in Hubli on Friday, General Manager of SWR Mr. Ashok Kumar Mital said that despite the ban, the SWR had arrested the downward trend in loading by picking up alternative traffic in the form of loading coal, cement and steel.

Mr. Mital said that Hubli and Mysore stations had been identified for setting up of Multi-Functional Complexes (MFC). MFC would also be set up in eight other railway stations — Bellary, Davangere, Shimoga Town, Tumkur, Yeshwantpur, Bangarpet, Arsikere, and Birur, he said. Mr. Mital said that the work on Adarsh stations at Chamarajanagar, Londa, Hubli, Vasco and Nanjangud Town had been completed and work at Bagalkot, Gokak Road, Devanahalli, Hindupur, Doddaballapur and Gauribidanur was under progress.

He said that SWR had sent a proposal to include Haveri, Alamatti, Badami, Kabakaputtur and Hosur in the Adarsh stations list in 2012-13 budgets to the Railway Board. Of the 31 members of the ZRUCC, 25 members representing various places in the jurisdiction of SWR participated in the meeting.

On Mr. Singhi’s demand for restarting the Garib Rath Express Special between Yeshwantpur and Jaipur, Mr. Mital said the matter was being pursued for extension of the train. The proposal would be sent to the Railway Board for regularization of Yeshwantpur-Jaipur Weekly Express as a regular train.