GUWAHATI, April 18 - Even as Maligaon-headquartered Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) registered a healthy growth in its revenue from goods traffic during 2017-18, a reduction in passenger and sundry earnings somewhat brought down the zone�s annual overall total earnings during the last fiscal.
In the April 2017-March 2018 period, NFR�s total approximate gross earnings on originating basis stood at Rs 3,151.70 crore compared to Rs 3,184.85 crore in 2016-17, registering a fall of 1.04 per cent.
This happened even as total revenue from goods traffic witnessed a growth in 2017-18. As per data, goods earnings on originating basis of NFR went up by 4.26 per cent to Rs 1,258.03 crore in the financial year ended March 31, 2018, as against Rs 1,206.67 crore in the previous fiscal.
Earnings from �other coachings� also jumped substantially by over 16 per cent year-on-year in 2017-18 to Rs 242.89 crore compared to Rs 209.24 crore in the previous year.
However, passenger earnings went down by 4.63 per cent to Rs 1,536.04 crore in the last fiscal as compared to Rs 1,610.58 crore in 2016-17.
Similarly, sundry earnings turned out to be a weak spot for NFR in the last financial year.
Sundry earnings registered a huge slump of over 27 per cent and fell to a mere Rs 114.74 crore in 2017-18 as against Rs 158.36 crore in 2016-17.
The total approximate number of passengers booked during the 2017-18 fiscal went up by 1.25 per cent on an annual basis to 102.40 million from 101.14 million in the April 2016-March 2017 period.
NFR sources said that prolonged disruption of railway services to and from rest of the country on account of the massive floods in eastern Bihar during August last year affected the finances of NFR during 2017-18.
The Bihar floods had severed railway link between the NFR zone and rest of the country for over three weeks.
Sources added that with the scheduled inauguration of the long-delayed Bogibeel Bridge project this year and expansion of the railway network to more areas in the region, the earnings are expected to go up in both the passenger and goods segments.
Besides, expansion of DEMU services is also expected to generate additional earnings from the passenger segment.
As for the slump in earnings from the sundry section which can be attributed to fall in profits from lease of property and sale of scrap materials, sources said that with proper planning the sundry sector can be revived and revenue generation from it can substantially improve.
It is interesting to note that NFR was among the only four of the total 17 zones of Indian Railways to have registered a year-on-year decline in its gross earnings on originating basis during the last fiscal.
The other zones which have performed badly are the Northern Railway (Delhi), South Western Railway (Hubballi) and North Western Railway (Jaipur).
Meanwhile, the total approximate gross earnings of Indian Railways on originating basis registered a healthy growth of over five per cent on an annual basis and stood at Rs 1,72,492 crore in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018.
