Railways Performance during 2007

Indian Railways have continued its good run in the year 2006 with an even better performance in the calendar year 2007. The growth in freight and passenger traffic during this year has been significant as compared to the figures of 2006. The freight loading increased from a level of 714.06 million tonnes in 2006 to 769.8 million tonnes in 2007, a growth of nearly 8%. The freight earnings during the same period went up from Rs.41,042.7 crores to Rs.45,421.2 crores i.e. a growth of over 10%. On the passenger front, the number of passengers increased from 6255.4 millions in 2006 to 6613.1 millions in 2007, a growth of 5.7%. The passenger earnings during the same period grew from Rs.15,398.6 crores to Rs.19,032.7 crores i.e. a growth of over 23%. To cater to this massive growth in traffic, Indian Railways have embarked on a major programme of capacity augmentation. In 2007, the 11th Plan of the Railways has been approved by the Government and it envisages a three-fold increase in investment during the Plan period. As against the 10th Plan size of Rs.84,000 crores, the 11th Plan of the Railways will be Rs.2,51,000 crores. A major portion of this investment will be for capacity generation by way of network expansion, Dedicated Freight Corridors, rolling stock procurement, technology upgradation and renewals & rehabilitation of assets. The year 2007 has seen major developments in the private sector participation in the Rail sector. A Concession Agreement was signed in January 2007 with the container train operators enabling private participation in container operations. This has opened up the investment possibilities for rail-linked ICDs and in container flat wagons and would pave the way for major increase in rail traffic on containers. Initiative for private participation for development of world-class stations has also been taken in 2007 and this would bring a sea-change in the facilities and ambience of our major


Posted on  Tuesday, January 01, 2008