Konkan Railway, the 741-km line that connects Mumbai and Mangalore, will be investing about Rs. 20,000 crore to improve passenger travel and enhance freight movement. It is also working on projects to link industries in the three states of Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka along with the ports.
The Financial Express said that doubling of the 741-km line and its electrification will substantially improve the quality of passenger travel and enable it handle higher freight volumes.
The freight traffic, which Konkan Railway expects to grow 20 percent in the current financial year, will improve from projects in the Chiplun-Karad, Vaibhavwadi-Kolhapur and Jaigad-Dighni stretches.
The business daily reported that the 103-km line between Chiplun and Karad would ease movement of cargo from ports located in in Maharashtra and reduce the distance by 425 km, besides benefitting Belgaum, Bijapur, Gulbarga, Latur, Parli and Solapur.
The Vaibhavwadi-Kolhapur line, entailing an investment of about Rs. 3,500 crore will connect Central Railway and Konkan Railway, besides improving connectivity to the Jaigad port.
Konkan Railway has a tie-up with JSW Ports for connecting the Jaigad port to Dighni on the Konkan line.
The doubling of the railway line will entail an investment of about Rs. 11,000 crore, while electrification will cost Rs. 710 crore, according to another Financial Express report.
Konkan Railway reported 22 percent growth in revenues on the basis of a 24 percent rise in freight revenues and 4 percent in passenger revenues, FE quoted Sanjay Gupta, chairman and managing director of Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL), as saying.
KRDCL earned a total income of Rs. 1,323 crore in 2014-15, up from Rs. 1,277 crore in 2013-14. Net profit rose three-fold to Rs. 39 crore in 2014-15 from Rs. 13 crore in the previous year. It had 4,943 employees as on March 31, 2015, according to its 2014-15 annual report.
Some of the trains that run on Konkan Railway include Mandovi Express, Mangalore Express, Mumbai Express, Konkan Kanya Express, Rajya Rani Express and Goa Sampark Kranti Express.
The first train on the completed Mumbai-Mangalore track was flagged off on January 26, 1998.
There are about 2,000 bridges and 59 stations on the Konkan Railway link.
