Rly registers 2 pc growth in passenger numbers, earnings rise by 7 pc in last 2 years: Min

There was a little more than two per cent increase in the number of passengers carried by the railways in 2017-2018, as against the previous year, while its earnings through it rose by more than seven per cent in the same period, Union minister Rajen Gohain said in Lok Sabha today.

The minister of state for railways said that while the number of passengers carried by the national transporter was 8116 million in 2016-17, it rose to 8287 million in 2017-2018.

Passengers earnings in the same period grew from Rs 46.28 crore in 2016-2017 to Rs 49.66 crore, he said.

Similarly, the freight performance improved by 4.83 per cent in 2017-2018 as compared to 2016-2017, Gohain said.

While in 2016-2017, the railways carried 1106.15 million tonnes of freight, the next year it carried 1159 million tonnes. Earnings from freight rose from Rs 1.02 lakh crore in 2016-2017 to Rs 1.12 lakh crore in 2017-2018 registering a growth of 10.68 per cent.