SR to instal ACDs

Chennai, June 30 (UNI) The Railway Board has sanctioned Rs 70 crore for installation of 'Anti-Collision Devices' (ACD) in Locomotives to avoid mishaps, Southern Railway General Manager Thomas Varghese said today.

Talking to newspersons after releasing the Southern Railway time table, he said the installation of ACDs would begin from September this year.

Mr Varghese said the SR would introduce 13 new trains in the course of this year, which includes Chennai Central-Hazrat Nizammudin Garib Rath airconditioned weekly express, Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram-Chennai weekly superfast expresses and Chennai-Mangalore tri-weekly superfast express.

He said the SR would release two railway directories per year, one from July to November and the other from December to June.

Giving the details of revenue collection, he said the SR had earned Rs 1,418 crore as passenger fare in 2005-06, compared to Rs 1,310 crore last year.

Regarding freight, he said the SR earned Rs 1,041 crore in 2005-06 carrying 27 million tonnes of goods compared to Rs 835 crore from 23 million tonnes last year. This year, the SR was targeting to transport a freight of 30 million tonnes.

Replying to a question, Mr Varghese said due to the commissioning of Indian Oil Company's pipeline between Chennai and Madurai to transit petroleum products, the earning of revenue from transporting petroleum products had affected the railways. The SR would now concentrate more on other sectors like fertilizers, coal, foodgrains and cements to meet the loss, he added.

Mr Varghese said the SR would introduce an additional EMU on the Chennai Beach-Tambaram route to overcome the heavy traffic from July this year.

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