SCR suffers Rs 15.6 Cr revenue loss due to ‘Hudhud’ cyclone

Hyderabad, Oct 14 (INN): The South Central Railway made several changes in the pattern of train services in the wake of ‘Hudhud’ cyclone and also in its aftermath, which caused breaches to railway track at several places between Elamanchili-Narsingpalli-Bayyavaram stations in Visakhapatnam District on Vijayawada Division. A large number of express / passenger trains have been cancelled or diverted on SCR as a precautionary measure in the interest of safety.
 
A total of 94 trains were cancelled; 19 trains were partially cancelled and 74 long distance express trains were diverted via alternate routes on SCR during the period from 11th to 14th October. As far as train services originating from SCR are concerned, 48 trains (33 Express and 15 Passenger) were cancelled; 7 trains (5 Express and 2 Passenger) were partially cancelled; and 8 Express trains were diverted in this period.
 
It is estimated that the SCR incurred a revenue loss of around Rs. 15.6 Cr in the last three days i.e. from 11th to 13th October, 2014. SCR suffered a loss of ridership of 5.6 lakh passengers which includes 5.04 lakhs of unreserved passengers and 54,000 reserved passengers in the last 3 days. It leads to a loss of Rs. 4.6 Cr of passenger earnings consisting of – Rs. 1.4 Cr in unreserved segment and Rs. 3.2 Cr in reserved passenger segment.
 
Due to dislocation of train services, the freight operations also got affected on SCR during the period from 11th to 13th October. In this period, the goods loading activities were adversely impacted at various freight terminals such as Kakinada Port, Ravikampadu, Regupalem, Jaggayyapet and Karepalli etc. Commodities like Imported Coal, Fertilizers, Lime stone, Cement and Laterite could not be loaded due to inclement weather and disruption to rail services. It resulted in a loss of loading to the extent of 33 rakes with 1.22 lakh tonnes of freight. The revenue losses incurred in freight segment amounted to around Rs. 11 Cr in the last three days.