In the first two months (April and May) of the current fiscal (2012-13), East Central Railway (Hajipur, Patna), a major freight-loading zonal railway, posted 42.69 per cent growth in freight earnings at Rs 1,448.31 crore over Rs 1,015 crore in the same period of the previous year on a much lower volume growth of 10.58 per cent at 17.14 million tonnes (15.5 mt), according to ECR sources.
During the same period, the earnings from passenger traffic amounted to Rs 280.35 crore, registering a growth of 12.24 per cent.
Total earnings amounted to Rs 1,745.69 crore (Rs 1,278.72 crore) recording a growth of 36.5 per cent. In May alone, the growth in earning was 43.96 per cent at Rs 904.41 crore (Rs 628.24 crore), the sources add. If the current rate of growth in freight traffic volume persists, ECR, the sources hope, will exceed the 100-mt mark by March 2013. In 2011-12, ECR handled a total of 94.68 mt.