SCR passenger earnings see a 93% dip

Frieght earnings did not suffer so high, says GM

South Central Railway (SCR) running only special express train services ever since the pandemic induced lockdown was lifted last year, has suffered a 93% dip in passenger earnings for 2020-21 with ₹974.24 crore. While this was expected, the previous year (2019-20) earnings was about ₹4.100 crore! This is reflected in the numbers too with just 24.25 million passengers till March end compared to 363.45 million the previous year. Freight has definitely done better with 95.9 MTs when compared to 109 MTs the previous or the drop has been just 10% with ₹8,372 crore when compared ₹9,339 crore the year before, disclosed General Manager Gajanan Mallya in a virtual media interaction on Friday. “We wanted to start 10 local train services and had obtained permissions but we backtracked due to rising coronavirus cases as the non-reserved travel could lead to crowding in trains. We are taking steps to keep our running staff and passengers safe by following the prescribed safety protocols. We are planning to complete the vaccination for 45 years and above this month with 12,764 vaccinations done till date for frontline workers,” he said.