GUWAHATI, Dec 25 - Fall in transportation of certain items, including foodgrain, coal and cement, resulted in a decline in the year-on-year cumulative revenue earnings from freight traffic of the Maligaon-headquartered Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) during the first half of the current fiscal.
NFR�s revenue earnings from freight traffic on originating basis went down to Rs 574.66 crore during the April 1-September 30 period of this year, compared to Rs 609.34 crore in the year-ago period, resulting in a fall of 5.69 per cent on an annual basis.
During the period under review, the commodity-wise freight traffic on originating basis of NFR also slipped by 2.07 per cent to 4.72 million tonnes (MT) from 4.82 MT in the comparative period of 2017-18.
In the first half of the current 2018-19 financial year, NFR earned Rs 46.29 crore from transportation of 0.26 MT of coal compared to Rs 62.49 crore from 0.30 MT in the same period of last fiscal.
Its earnings from transportation of cement also went down on an annual basis.
NFR earned merely Rs 3.18 crore from transportation of 0.04 MT of cement during the first half of this fiscal as against Rs 17.43 crore from transportation of 0.20 MT of the product in the year-ago period.
Similarly, its earnings from foodgrain came down to Rs 115.12 crore by transportation of 0.54 MT of such items, compared to Rs 172.54 crore from transportation of 0.67 MT of foodgrain during the first six months of 2017-18.
However, the zone�s freight revenue from mineral oil (petroleum oil and lubricants) increased year-on-year during the first half of 2018-19.
It earned Rs 210.40 crore by transporting 1.64 MT of mineral oil during the period under review as against Rs 184.17 crore from 1.50 MT in April-September of last fiscal.
In addition, NFR earned Rs 80.03 crore from transportation of 0.73 MT of raw materials, Rs 8.22 crore from 0.14 MT of fertilisers, Rs 14.35 crore from 0.04 MT of container service and Rs 97.07 crore by transporting 1.33 MT of �other goods� during the first six months of the current fiscal.
Overall, in the first half of 2018-19, Indian Railways� cumulative revenue earnings from freight traffic on originating basis jumped by almost 11 per cent on an annual basis to Rs 58,158 crore, while its commodity-wise freight traffic also registered a growth of over five per cent to 589.29 MT.
Sources said that economic downturn has led to a fall in the demand for commodities like coal and cement, thus affecting the traffic of such products and this has impacted the half-yearly performance of NFR.
They added that freight traffic and earnings from it can receive further fillip in the NFR zone as work on the double tracking is taken up and railway services are extended to remote parts of the north-eastern states. The opening of the long-awaited Bogibeel Bridge is also likely to boost the revenue generation capabilities of the zone, officials said.
