The Hindu Business Line : Eastern Railway sets 42-mt freight target

EASTERN Railway has set a freight target of 42 million tonnes for the year 2004-05. The General Manager of Eastern Railway, Mr Shyam Kumar, announced this here on Tuesday at a function to celebrate the 51st Railway Week.

He said ER surpassed the Board-fixed freight target of 34 million tonnes for 2003-04 by four million tonnes, moving 38 million tonnes.

Pointing out that there was overall improvement in ER's performance during 2003-04, he said passenger traffic has increased to 68.04 crore for the period against the 65.51 crore recorded during 2002-03.

Elaborating on the new facilities introduced by ER, he said 8 new trains and 9 EMU trains were introduced last fiscal. Some 68 new computerised reservation offices besides 17 unreserved ticketing systems through computerised network were also opened in 2003-04.

He gave away awards to 165 employees and distributed 10 group awards and 51 shields and cups to different departments, divisions and workshops for their meritorious performance during the last financial year.

The Asansol division received the overall efficiency shield for the year. The Sealdah division won the GM's efficiency Cup for runners up. Howrah station was adjudged the best-kept station. The Kalyani station under the Sealdah division won the best-kept medium station award and two other stations such as Rupnarayanpur in Asansol division and Nabadwip Dham in Howrah division jointly received the best-kept small station awards.