Title - Railways revenue showing upward swing: Kharge

‘If the trend continues, it will be easy to achieve the plan target’

Railway Minister M. Mallikarjun Kharge has said that the revenue mobilisation by the Railways has seen an upward swing, and if the trend continues it would be easy to achieve the plan target set for the year 2013-14.“There has been a marked improvement in mobilisation of revenue because of increased movement of freight in the last couple of months raising hopes of the Ministry of achieving the plan targets,” Mr. Kharge said.Speaking to The Hindu in Gulbarga on Tuesday, Mr. Kharge said that if the present trend of increased resource mobilisation continues, the Railways would be able to achieve its plan targets easily.He participated in an awareness programme organised by the Information and Publicity Department and Press Information Bureau here on Tuesday.He said among the reasons for the fall in the revenue of the Railways was the ban imposed on mining of iron ore in Karnataka and other States. Besides that economic crisis resulting in the fall in the production levels in the manufacturing sector in addition to fall in the growth of the infrastructure sector had contributed for the fall in the revenue of the Railways. If there is buoyancy in the economy and general improvement in the GDP rates, the revenue of the Railways would improve because of increased movement of freight. We have also taken measures to plug the leakages to save the precious resources of the Railways”.

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