Coimbatore : Gross earnings of Salem Division of Southern Railway during the first nine months of the financial year 2018-19 stood at Rs.524.75 crores which is 14.20 per cent higher than the last year earnings and originating Freight earnings is Rs.7.58 crore which is 56.24 per cent higher than previous year earnings of Rs 43.17 crore, a top official said Saturday.

The cumulative passenger earnings during the period stood at Rs.412.75 Crore which is 9.6 per cent increase than previous year’s earnings of Rs 376.60 Crore, Salem Divisional Railway Manager, U Subba Rao said.

The division has loaded 0.66 Metric Tonnes (MT) of different types of commodities to various destinations across the country surpassing the target of 0.43 MT registering an increase of 55 per cent over last year, Rao said during his addressat the 70th Republic Day celebrations held at Divisional office.

Salem Division has made a significant contribution to the increasing passenger traffic and during the year 2018-19 (up to Dec. 2018), the division has carried 2.35 Million Passengers which is 8.39 per cent higher than that of previous year of 2.17 Million passengers, Rao said in an official release.

Rao also congratulated and thanked one and all for bagging No.1 position for cleanliness under the category of “other than Premium Category trains” in the recent “Trains cleanliness survey” conducted by IRCTC on all India level.

He also spoke about other performance like operation of .UDAY Express between Coimbatore – KSR Bengaluru Air Conditioned Double Decker, “UTKRISHT” coaches introduced T.No.12647/48(Kongu Exp) and Installation of Solar Panel with a capacity of 100 KW at Coimbatore.