By Apurva Bhatt

Central Railway's commercial department has come up with the best results for the financial year ending March, in terms of passengers as well as earnings, among all railway zones in the country.

Railway minister Suresh Prabhu presented the shield to CR's top brass at the National Railway Week function held at Guwahati. According to officials, CR's commercial department ensured that there was a 0.71% increase in passengers when the passenger numbers across Indian Railwaysfell by a crippling 2.13%.

CR's suburban passengers also increased by 0.73%, this too, at a time when passengers on the suburban systems of other cities is showing a decline.CR carried a record 1,716 million passengers between April 2014 and March 2015, as against 1705 million passengers in 2013-14.

The other good news that CR brought to the cash-strapped railways was an 11% increase in earnings. According to CR officials, it achieved an earning of Rs 4,780 crore in passengers, Rs 5,255 crore in goods traffic, Rs465 crore in other train-related items, and Rs382 crore in sundry earnings. CR's total earning was Rs10,882 crore, as against Rs 9,778 crore achieved last year.