Title - Eastern Railway records higher freight and passenger revenue in April-May '12

Eastern Railway has recorded substantial growth earnings with higher freight and passenger its earnings during April and May, 2012.Eastern Railway set a record by carrying 10.606 million tonnes of freight traffic in first two months of the current financial year, April and May 2012, surpassing the proportionate target set up by Railway Board of 10.32 million tonne for these two months.During the corresponding period last year, April and May 2011, Eastern Railway had carried 9.288 million tonnes of freight traffic. Thus, there was an increase of 14.19% over the previous year. Out of total loading so far, coal alone amounted to 7.322 million tonnes as against 6.163 million tonnes during the previous year. General goods amounted to 3.284 million tonnes this year. Improvement in loading has been possible due to better offering of coal by the public and private coal producers, which has increased by 22.92% during May 2012 and 18.81% during 2012-13 (upto May 2012) over the corresponding period of previous year.Total earning of Eastern Railway from freight traffic also increased to Rs. 794.02 crores during April and May 2012 as against 588.35 million tonnes during the corresponding period of last year.Thus, there was an increase of 34.96% over last year's earning. In terms of passenger traffic too, Eastern Railway carried as many as 19.56 crores of passengers in April-May 2012 as against 18.82 crores of passengers carried during April and May 2011, recording an improvement of 3.86% over last year.Eastern Railway earned a total of Rs 268.95 crores during April and May 2012 as against Rs 249.93 crores during April and May 2011, showing an increase of 7.61% over last year.Total earning of Eastern Railway increased to Rs 1101.81 crores during April and May 2012 even surpassing the proportionate target fixed up by Railway Board of Rs 1074.21 crores for these 2 months.Last year, Eastern Railway earned Rs 873.51 crores during the previous corresponding months recording an increase of 26.14% over last year.