Last fiscal, Eastern Railway's passenger traffic revenue stood at Rs 722.80 crore.

The total number of passengers carried by Eastern Railway increased 2.38 per cent to 58.06 crore from previous fiscal's 56.71 crore. Out of this, the number of suburban passengers who constitute 75 per cent of the railway's total passenger traffic, increased from 43.10 crore to 44.03 crore. The number of non-suburban passengers rose from 13.61 crore to 14.03 crore.

Out of the Rs 808.90 crore passenger traffic revenue, earnings from suburban passenger traffic have increased by 11.02 per cent to Rs 156.46 crore from the previous fiscal's Rs 140.92 crore.

Revenue from non-suburban passenger traffic has been Rs 652.45 crore, which is 12.12 per centmore than the previous fiscal's Rs 581.88 crore.

The growth of passenger traffic both in physical and financial terms has been possible thanks to sustained drives against ticketless travel throughout the year, Bhattacharyya said. The number of ticktless travellers detected till February of the 1998-99 fiscal has been 8,61,000 and fine amount realised from them has been Rs 5.70 crore. Fine realised from unbacked luggage has been Rs 1.95 crore.

Nationwide CONCERT technique from April 18
The railway will be brought under countrywide network computerised enhanced reservation and ticketing (CONCERT) from April 18 when Chennai gets connected to Calcutta through the system, Bhattacharyya said.

This will enable passengers to get reservation booked from a single counter all over the Indian Railways booking system.

So far the CONCERT system were operational from New Delhi, Secunderabad, Mumbai and Calcutta. Now that the Chennai connection has been put in place, the single-window service for booking ofreservation from any station to any station all over Indian Railways will soon be available.