South Western Railway has nearly completed doubling all the major railway routes and electrification of approximately 87% of the network under its jurisdiction, General Manager Arvind Srivastava said on August 15.
Delivering the Independence Day address after hoisting the national flag in front of Rail Soudha in Hubballi on Thursday, Mr. Srivastava said that SWR had achieved 88.32% punctuality in the running of mail and express trains, resulting in the railway zone being ranked fourth in India.
The originating freight loading had exceeded 50.36 million tonnes during the financial year 2023-24, the highest so far. “The railway zone has recorded gross originating revenue of ₹2,632 crore between April and July 2024. Out of the 3,662 route kilometres of rail route under the zone, 3,186 route kilometres have been electrified,” he said.
“In the current financial year, SWR has not recorded any SPAD (Signal Passed at Danger) case. To further enhance the safety, installation of sliding booms at 22 level crossing gates and voice recording phones at all 323 interlocked gates was done during the current fiscal. SWR closed 29 level crossings during 2023-24 by commissioning 21 ROB-RUBs, 23 FOBs, and 27 high-level platforms,” he said.
Mr. Srivastava said that 29 km of new lines and 61 km of double lines had been commissioned during the financial year, 86 bridges had been rehabilitated and 245 track km had been renewed.
The railway zone has recorded passenger revenue of ₹1,077 crore, an increase of 6.47% compared to last year. In July 2024, the best-ever monthly passenger revenue of ₹286.3 crore, the highest since the inception of SWR, was recorded.
During the financial year 2023-24, SWR had recovered stolen railway property worth ₹20.69 lakh.
The Stores Department had shown remarkable improvement and risen to 3rd from 12th position at the national level with scrap sale amounting to ₹155 crore. Because of special initiatives, solar installations across SWR generated 57 lakh units of electricity annually, saving around ₹2.81 crore. The Hubballi and Mysuru workshops exported 3,26,796 units of solar-generated electricity to the grid, saving approximately ₹10 lakh.
Mr. Srivastava flagged off nine newly procured Royal Enfield motorcycles for the Anti-Human Trafficking Units of RPF and the SIB units of RPF-SWR.
The Independence Day celebrations concluded with cultural programmes by children of SWRWWO High School. Additional General Manager K. S. Jain, Principal Heads of Departments of South Western Railway and senior officials were present.
As part of the celebrations, SWR Women Welfare Organization president Namita Srivastava, along with other office-bearers, donated a 55-inch LED TV to Central Hospital Hubballi and distributed gifts to patients.
