Three per cent drop in passenger segment

The Railways have revised upwards the target for originating revenue earning freight traffic to 515 million tonnes in the revised estimates for 2002-03, five million tonnes more than the original target.

Presenting the Budget for 2003-04, Railway Minister Nitish Kumar said the performance during the first 10 months of the current fiscal has exceeded the proportionate target.

On the other hand, in the passenger segment, there has been a drop of nearly three per cent in number of passengers till December, 2002.

PTI