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To achieve Mission 700 MT freight loading target and bring down the Operating Ratio from 91% to 85% by the end of the current financial year, the Ministry of Railways has sent a communication to General Managers of all the Zonal Railways to indicate the steps taken by them in this regard for the month of October 2005. All Zonal Railways were asked to work out an aggressive pricing and marketing strategy to regain the market share, which has been lost over the years. And also in their preparations for the peak season, availability of wagons, locos and crew needs to be substantially improved by further reducing the turn round of wagons to 5 days and rationalizing loco and crew links of both passenger and freight trains.
Appreciating the work done by most of the Zonal Railways for increasing the growth rate in ‘other coaching’ and ‘sundry earnings’ in the last two months, Railway Ministry has stressed upon the need for stepping up their efforts further so as to achieve at least 50% improvement in these earnings by the end of this financial year. The communication says that all Zonal Railways must reduce the loses on catering by aligning license fee with their true potential (Rs. 411 crores) and parcel and luggage (Rs. 782 crores) by giving maximum number of SLRs on long term lease in this financial year by at least 50%. The Ministry also urged all GMs to improve occupancy of passenger trains by at least 2 to 5% through strengthening passenger profile management.
The Ministry of Railways has observed that implementation of some works of small value is tardy. Out of the 370 on-going traffic facility works, 70 are more than five years old, with the oldest being of the year 1990-91. The communication to all GMs says that all such old sanctioned works should be reviewed to assess their need in the present context and if it is felt that some works are no longer required, proposals for dropping these works should be sent to the Railway Board by 30.11.2005.
Earlier,the Ministry of Railways has sent an action plan to all Zonal Railways for improving wagon availability and wagon utilization for improving performance at terminals as well as qualitative improvement in freight train examination and wagon maintenance practices to enable increased wagon availability. Action plan for optimizing freight loading has also included measures for substantial improvement in speed of freight trains and improved availability of locomotives.
BSC/HK/TR-147/05
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