Against a target of Rs 6,884.52 crore, WR's earnings for these four months have been Rs 5,101.38 crore. Against earnings registered in the same period last year, the drop is 17%.
In an honest confession about its financial health, Western Railway has announced that the first four months (April to July) of 2016-17 has seen its earnings miss the target by 25.9% while its freight loading has dropped by 29.7%.
Against a target of Rs 6,884.52 crore, WR's earnings for these four months have been Rs 5,101.38 crore. Against earnings registered in the same period last year, the drop is 17%.
While it loaded 28 million tonne of freight during April-July in 2015-16, it dropped to 24 million tonne in April-July this year, according to statistics with WR.
According to the officials, the fortunes of WR are following that of other railway zones which are seen considerable fall in freight loading, the main bread-and-butter of the ailing public transporter. The two main issues, according to railway officials, is the fall in import of coal and also of fertilisers.
"Railway is the largest transporter of imported coal as well as fertilisers. The use of indigenous coal has reduced coal imports, which, in turn, has affected our loading targets. The drought that spread through much of 2015 meant a huge part of imported fertiliser got carried forward to this year. So fertiliser imports are also down and, in turn, it's loading on the railways. Both of these have hit the finance books of the railways," said a senior official.
The dismal numbers for WR come after several years of growth, which was among the best in Railways. Its earnings during the April-July period in 2014 was Rs 5,100 crore, in 2013 was Rs 4,525 crore, in the same period in 2012 was Rs 3,808 crore. All these were years when the earnings were growing by an average of 12-15%, said WR officials.
The ray of hope for the months to come, according to officials, is the increase in private freight terminals as well as an expected robust turn in container transport from Gujarat's ports and also loading of petroleum.
"We will do good in both these spheres and ensure we surpass targets," said an official.
The freight blues for the railways nationwide is because of a loss of 32 million tonne of coal due to fall in imports, according to officials. Mining in some captive coal blocks re-allocated to public sector power utilities not starting was another reason.
Another loss was 10 million tonne of food due to less movement by the Food Corporation of India from the surplus states. Container loading fell 8 million tonne due to slowdown in the world economy.
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