In revenue:

Railways record 10 percent increase

The Railways has recorded a 10 percent increase in revenue in 2009 with total income of Rs 4020 million compared to Rs 3671 million in 2008.

Railways Commercial Superintendent Wijaya Samarasinghe said the Department earned Rs 4,020 million in the last year which was a Rs 359 million increase from the year before, he said.

“Our target for last year was Rs. 3946 million. But, we have been able to earn a revenue of Rs 4,020 million which is almost.74 million rupees above the set target,” he said.

He further said the total revenue increased by 14 percent during the last six months of 2009 over the first quarter of the year.

The Department has targeted to earn Rs.5000 million in this year following the proper strategy of adopting high technology and use well trained manpower, as emphasized in the railway policy for safety and security. He said this recorded revenue was due to a number of fruitful actions taken by the Department under the directives of Transport Minister Dullas Alahapperuma.

They were able to earn this amount by leasing Railway land and property and also from rentals.

Actions were also taken to open shops, milk outlets, canteens and small scale trade stalls at islandwide railway station premises.

Increasing raids to capture the ticketless commuters and selling debries and iron stocks which are not utilised currently had resulted in increasing the revenue, he said.