Hyderabad, Jan 6 (IANS): The gross revenues of South Central Railway (SCR) have jumped by 21.5 percent to Rs.9,340 crore during the first three quarters of the current financial year, an official statement said.

The zone showed remarkable performance ad impressive growth rates in gross earnings and traffic volume from April to Dec 2014, suprassing the Railway Board's targets, said the statement by the railway zone headquartered here.

The gross originating earnings of SCR at Rs.9,340 crore registered a growth of 21.5 percent, while it generated additional revenue of Rs.1,652 crore compared to Rs.7,688 crore grossed in the same period of last fiscal.

"The actual earnings surpassed the Railway Board's target of Rs.9,285 crore for this period. The gross earnings of SCR targeted for FY 2014-15 is Rs.12,762 crore and SCR is all set to meet this target," it said.

The SCR officials attributed impressive performance to close monitoring of running of train services, maximizing rolling stock utilization and the huge surge in the rail traffic handled at Krishnapatnam and Kakinada ports.

The cumulative freight loading grew by 10 percent, to stand at 85.7 million tonnes (MT), against 77.9 MT done in the same period of last year.

Freight earnings constitute around 70 percent of the gross earnings of the zone. The revenue from freight activities grew to Rs.6,614 crore, a growth of 23.5 percent over last year.

Coal contributed to 53 percent of the total freight loading. The loading of coal has surged to 45.6 MT against 41.3 MT during the same period of last year.

SCR carried 27.6 crore of originating passengers during the period. It carried around 10 lakhs of passengers on an average per day. The earnings from passenger sector were Rs. 2,323 crore, a growth of 18 percent over last year.