GUWAHATI, May 24 � Slowdown in transport of coal from the region on account of new environmental norms resulted in a marginal decline in the year-on-year cumulative revenue earnings from freight traffic of the Maligaon-headquartered Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) during 2014-15.
The NFR�s revenue earnings from freight traffic stood at Rs 1,449.52 crore in 2014-15 compared to Rs 1,459.41 crore in previous financial year of 2013-14, resulting in a fall of 0.68 per cent.
The fall in revenue could be attributed to slump in transport of coal, mainly in the second half of the fiscal. During the first six months of the financial year, cumulative revenue earnings had registered a jump of 17 per cent.
During the period under review, the commodity-wise freight traffic also went down by over 5 per cent on an annual basis to 11.53 million tonnes from 12.15 million tonnes in 2013-14.
�The overall decline in revenue earnings from freight traffic was on account of fall in supply of coal from the North-east to other parts of the country on account of tougher environmental norms and Supreme Court rulings,� said an official.
NFR and Kolkata-headquartered South Eastern Railway were the only two railway zones which registered a fall in revenue earnings from freight traffic on an annual basis in the April 2014-March 2015 period.
The NFR earned Rs 289.70 crore from transportation of 1.31 million tonnes of coal in 2014-15, as against an earning of Rs 450.73 crore from transportation of 1.97 million tonnes of coal in the previous fiscal.
However, coal still continues to be a major source of earnings from freight traffic for the NFR. Besides coal, mineral oil, foodgrains and raw materials for steel plants formed the biggest component of freight traffic.
In 2014-15, NFR earned Rs 556.31 crore from transportation of 3.49 million tonnes of mineral oil, followed by Rs 139.93 crore from 1.34 million tonnes of foodgrains.
Besides, it earned Rs 133.42 crore from transportation of 1.18 million tonnes of raw materials for steel plants, Rs 66.96 crore from 0.64 million tonnes of cement, Rs 26.42 crore from transportation of 0.36 million tonnes of fertilisers, Rs 26.03 crore from 0.10 million tonnes of container service and Rs 210.75 crore from 3.11 million tonnes of other goods.
Overall, in the 2014-15 fiscal, the Indian Railways� cumulative revenue earnings from freight traffic touched Rs 1,05,312 crore, a rise of 12.67 per cent on an annual basis.
Officials said that freight traffic and earnings can get a boost with expansion of the rail network to interior parts of the North-east.
