Presenting the railway budget in the Lok Sabha, railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav said that this was being done in the light of actual growth rate achieved during 2003-2004.

Prasad said it is proposed to revise the freight earnings for the current year, duly enhancing the loading target by 10 million tonnes and fixing the same at 580 million tonnes.

He said the freight earnings have been placed at Rs 28,745 crore, which is Rs 645 crore higher than the interim budget level.

The Minister said freight earnings, which were brought down at the Revised Estimates stage last year, based on the trend at that time, showed remarkable recovery later due to general buoyancy, as a result of which the revised target was surpassed.