ER achieves growth rate of 6.08%; passenger count, earnings increase

Kolkata: Eastern Railway has achieved a growth of 6.08 percent in suburban passenger earnings for the period — April to December, 2018 — in comparison with the corresponding period of last year.

Eastern Railway secured the first position in suburban passenger earnings among all zonal railways in the country and the growth rate is the highest achievement in the Indian Railway System.

It has earned a mammoth additional amount of Rs 29.59 crore by inducting additional suburban passenger traffic of 3.45 crore in this period.

The overall growth of passenger earnings of Eastern Railway has also achieved a remarkable figure of 6.32 percent for the period from April to December, 2018, in comparison with the corresponding period of last year.

In absolute figure, the additional earnings amount to Rs 127.59 crore from carrying additional passenger traffic of 3.83 crore.

ER has achieved huge success in passenger traffic and earnings through a number of passenger-friendly initiatives resulting in the increase of purchase of journey tickets. Passenger awareness campaigns towards usefulness of ATVM, POS, and mobile ticketing etc. are constantly and continuously going on.

Eastern Railway has installed 232 ATVMs in the period from April to December, 2018, in addition to the previously existing 178 ATVMs and looks to introduce another 148 at different stations shortly. Besides reducing the waiting time, the intending passenger can get journey tickets from these ATVMs with 3 percent bonus.

For providing easier access to purchase journey tickets, ER has also appointed 154 more JTBS (Jansadharan Ticket Booking Sevaks) up to December, 2018.

For extending the facilities of cash less transactions, ER has installed 596 POS machines at the PRS and UTS counters in different areas up to December 2018. Purchasing of unreserved tickets through mobile phone from any station to any station has also been implemented.

QR based mobile-ticketing facility has also been implemented through which passengers can easily purchase journey tickets after reaching the station.