Indian Railway Grows @ 8 per cent in 2009-10

Information to this effect was shared by Railway Ministry official on Monday that,"The growth was 8.56 per cent between April 1, 2009 to January 31, 2010 as Railways earned Rs 70,501.65 crore in comparison to Rs 64,943.32 crore it earned during the same period last year.” 

The Budget which will be presented on 24th February is likely to focus on increased public-private partnership to expend railway network and seek increased fund allocation for expediting ongoing railway infrastructure projects.

The official said the total goods earnings went up from Rs 44,035.66 crore to Rs 47,763.29 crore during this period while the passenger earnings also went up from Rs 18,057.41 crore to Rs 19,393.26 crore.

Consequently, the growth in goods earnings was registered at 8.47 percent while the growth registered in passenger earnings was at 7.40 percent, he said.

Railways carried 6,188.78 million passengers during the 10 month period as against 5,917.13 million it carried during the same period last year, which was also an increase of 4.59 percent, he said.

Out of the total passengers carried, the growth in the suburban section was 1.48 percent and in the non-suburban section it was 8.16 percent.

Revenue earnings from other departments also increased to Rs 1,903.31 crore during April 2009-January 2010 as compared to Rs 1,666.54 crore during the same period last year, which was an increase of 14.21 percent.

Reports suggest the budget will see announcement of over three dozen new passenger services including Duronto trains and infusion of more funds towards upgradation of safety related infrastructure.