OREANDA-NEWS. March 14, 2012. The Indian Railways proposes to target carrying 1025 Million Tonnes of revenue earning traffic during 2012-13. The target is 55 Million Tonnes more than the revised estimates of 970 Million Tonnes for the current fiscal. Announcing the new targets in the Railway Budget, Railway Minister Shri Dinesh Trivedi said that the freight earnings target has been kept at Rs.89,339 crore, indicating a growth of 30.2% over the current years revised targets.

 He said with the increase in number of trains and higher occupancy, the number of passengers is expected to increase by 5.4%. The passenger earnings are estimated at Rs.36,073 crore, targeting an increase of Rs. 7,273 crore over the revised estimate of the current year.

 The other coaching and sundry earnings are expected to grow by 8.9% and 10.7% in 2012-13 to Rs.2994 crore and Rs.4096 crore respectively. He said gross traffic receipts are expected to increase by Rs. 28,635 crore over the revised estimates of 2011-12 and are expected to be Rs. 1,32,552 crore.

 The Minister indicated that the ordinary working expenses are estimated at Rs.84,400 crore which is 11.6% higher than the current year’s expenses. This also includes appropriation of Rs.18500 crore to pension fund. He said, to step up investment in safety, the appropriation to depreciation reserve fund has been enhanced to Rs.9500 crore signifying an increase of about 54%