Agartala:(IANS) The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) topped among 19 railway zones by registering a record growth in passenger traffic in 2016-17, an official said on Thursday.

“NFR recorded a 6.22 per cent growth in passenger traffic which is the highest growth rate among all zones,” NFR’s Chief Public Relations Officer Pranav Jyoti Sharma said.

He said the main source of earnings for railways is from freight traffic and the Railway Board fixes yearly target of freight as well as passenger traffic revenue for each zone.

In 2016-17 fiscal, the earning of NFR from goods traffic stood at Rs 1,706.85 crore, which is 9.50 per cent more than the Railway Board target of Rs 1,558.73 crore.

Earnings from passenger traffic totalled Rs 1,043.17 crore, which is 3.79 per cent more than the targeted Rs 1,005.07 crore.

The NFR, set up in 1958, serves seven districts in West Bengal and five districts in north Bihar besides the eight northeastern states.

The NFR recorded the highest ever scrap sale of Rs 115.35 crore in the last fiscal.

Of the 505 stations under NFR’s jurisdiction, 15 have been provided with mechanised cleaning.

CCTV monitoring is done at eight stations: Guwahati, Dimapur, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Alipurduar, New Jalpaiguri, Katihar and Jogbani.

In 2016-17, the NFR introduced 26 new train services while services of eight were extended.