Divisional Railway Manager, Tiruchi, Ajay Kumar, on Friday said that there was no case of stranded passengers at railway stations in Tiruchi Division.
In an online press meet organised here, he said some fake videos were in circulation on WhatsApp regarding stranded passengers and rush at the railway stations thereby causing panic. The video clips were old ones. All trains in operation at present were reserved trains that were being run as per capacity. The railways would continue to run reserved trains and there was no need for unnecessary panic among the public. The hike in platform ticket was mainly aimed at avoiding crowding at railway stations during the pandemic.
He said automatic thermal scanners had been deployed at Tiruchi Junction to screen passengers as they entered the station premises. Manual screening of passengers using hand held thermal scanners were being done at other stations.
The Senior Divisional Commercial Manager I. Senthil Kumar said the Travelling Ticket Examiners were insisting on rail passengers wearing masks.
Freight earnings
The Tiruchi Railway Division has loaded 8.430 million tonnes of freight during the 2020-2021 fiscal notwithstanding the pandemic. The freight earnings was ₹453.49 crores.
The highest single day loading was 907 wagons with 57,992 tonnes of freight that was achieved on March 31. The division had loaded various commodities such as coal, cement, food grains and fertilisers. In respect of food grains, the division had loaded 1.725 million tonnes. As for cement, it had loaded 0.378 million tonnes. Fertiliser loading in the previous financial year was 0.358 million tonnes. It had loaded 0.256 million tonnes of other goods last fiscal. Coal loading was 5.65 million tonnes.
Slag loading commenced on February 13 from the Karaikal Port to Chettinad Cement plant, Palayam. After a gap of seven years, cement loading had started from the Ariyalur goods shed for Dalmia Cements Bharat Limited.
A press release said a new goods shed had been commissioned at Mannargudi and operation of both inward and outward traffic had commenced.
Limestone and Clinker loading had started from October and November from India Cements, Icchangadu to India Cements at Thalaiyuthu besides to Madurai and from Karaikal Port to Wayalar. The punctuality performance of the division had gone up to 98.25 % as against 90.19% during the corresponding period of the previous year. This was the second best in the Southern Railway zone.