The Hindu Business Line : Railways back on track, says Lalu

, THE Railway Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad, today claimed that the UPA Government had brought the Indian Railways back on track by recording the highest ever growth.

During the last nine months, the Railways had generated an additional revenue of Rs 800-900 crore by preventing the pilferage from the system through under invoicing.

"Increasing the freight capacity by four tonnes per wagon can generate an additional revenue of Rs 4,000 crore for the Railways," Mr Yadav said while attending the 50th Annual Railway Awards ceremony in Kolkata. "We are planning to achieve the target this year."

The Railways are also considering commercial use of its vast land resources in the country. "We have a large quantity of unused land at our disposal in cities where real estate activities are growing at a very high rate. We are now planning commercial use of our land resources," he said.

Earlier, the Railway Board Chairman, Mr R K Singh, said the Railways had registered six per cent growth in passenger traffic during the last fiscal, which was the highest in its history. Freight has increased by eight per cent to 602 million tonnes (mt) in 2004-05, well above the target of 580 mt . Total earnings have increased by 10 per cent.

Carrying 1.5 crore passengers a day, the highest in the world, the Indian Railways have also registered a significant fall in number of accidents from 325 in 2003-04 to 234 in 2004-05. "Every accident saved has actually contributed to our surplus generation," Mr Singh said, adding that a substantial amount of money was saved during the year due to a decline in the accident rate.

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Railways back on track, says Lalu