Railways' revenue up 13.17 per cent in April-January 2009

Indian Railways has defied the recessionary trend with 13.14 per cent growth in total revenue earnings, reflecting a 13.31 per cent growth in freight traffic, and 11.95 per cent rise in passenger during the first three quarters of the current year, chairman of the Railway Board S S Khurana said.

Total revenue earnings of the Railways on an originating basis stood at Rs64,876.34 crore during the first ten months of the current financial year against Rs57,327.00 crore during the same period of the previous fiscal, registering an increase of 13.17 per cent.

The total earnings from goods traffic stood at Rs44,016.26 crore, up from Rs38,734.12 crore in the first ten months of the previous fiscal - an increase of 13.64 per cent.

Total passenger revenue earnings during the first ten months of the financial year 2008-09 were up  11.82 per cent at Rs18,042.82 crore from Rs16,134.94 crore during the same period last year.

The revenue earnings from other traffic amounted to Rs1,639.42 crore during April-January 2009 compared to Rs1,539.31 crore during the same period last fiscal, an increase of 6.50 per cent.

Total sundry earnings have gone up from Rs918.63 crore during April-January 2008 to Rs1,177.84 crore during April-January 2009, showing an increase of 28.22 per cent.

The total approximate number of passengers booked during April-January 2009 was 5,917.86 million compared to 5,559.89 million during the same period last year, showing an increase of 6.44 per cent. In the suburban and non-suburban sectors, the number of passengers booked during April-January 2009 stood at 3,164.06 million and 2,753.80 million, respectively, compared to 3,074.10 million and 2,485.79 million, respectively, during the same period of the previous fiscal, an increase of 2.93 per cent and 10.78 per cent respectively.

Khurana, however, said the Railways need to maintain the tempo of growth in passenger traffic and increase in the market share of good traffic during the XIth plan to ensure 1,000 million tonnes of freight and carrying of 840 million passengers in the terminal year of the plan (2011-12).

During the XIth plan period, Railways is expect to double its transport capacity and to further reduce the unit cost of transportation by investing in low-cost, high-return projects which has been successful in eliminating network-bottlenecks and for ensuring effective utilisation of rolling stock, in the short run.

Additionally, the strategy in the long run would be to enhance productivity through modernisation and technological upgradation on the one hand and enhancement of capacity of the network and rolling stock on the other.

Public-Private Partnerships, development of world class stations and the construction of dedicated freight corridors on eastern and western sectors would be other areas of priority in the future. Besides, safety, security and punctuality shall continue to be priorities as they have always been, the chairman added.