Indiantelevision.com Team

(27 February 2008 2:30 pm)

NEW DELHI: Without specifying figures, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav has said that the revenue from advertising has shown "unprecedented growth."

In a general reference, while presenting his budget for 2008-09 he said that miscellaneous earnings in the last four years were likely to increase from Rs 19 billion to Rs 47 billion.

Meanwhile, the minister emphasised the role of newer technologies like IT and mobiles. He said that with the number of mobile phones expected to rise from the present 300 million to 500 million by 2010, he was exploring the option of issuing reserved and unreserved railway tickets through mobile phones.

"We have decided to use modern IT and telecom technology to link the Railway call centres and National Train Enquiry System on an online basis. The work will be completed by March 2009 to disseminate latest updated information about trains," said Yadav.

To improve operational efficiency, bring transparency in working and provide better services to the customers, his department was trying to bring about radical changes in Railway Technology Systems and processes.

He also added that attention was being focused on IT for achieving these objectives. Core areas had been identified for this purpose and the "vision for IT would be implemented over the next five years" by 2012.