The Ambala Division of Northern Railway is eyeing 20 per cent jump in its total income to Rs 1,800 crore in 2010-11 by transporting foodgrains, courtesy an expected bumper output of wheat and rice in Punjab.

"We are anticipating 20 per cent jump in our total income in current fiscal, which will mainly be coming from freight collection, for transporting foodgrains including wheat and rice from Punjab to other states," Northern Railway (Ambala), senior divisional commercial manager, G.M. Singh told PTI here today.

Ambala Division's 90 per cent of income generated from freight segment comes from transportation of food grain from Punjab to other states.

"If we have a bumper output of wheat and rice in Punjab this year, it will definitely lead to higher collection of freight as FCI (Food Corporation of India) will be sending out more food grain to other states through our network," he said.

This year Punjab is expecting wheat and paddy output of 150 lakh tonnes and over 155 lakh tonnes, respectively.

Ambala Division covers 64.5 per cent rail network of Punjab, 18.5 per cent of Haryana, 11 per cent of Himachal Pradesh, three per cent each of UP and Rajasthan.

Northern Railway (Ambala) earned total income of Rs 1,517 crore (which comprises of income from passenger and freight segments) in 2009-10 with an average growth of 24 per cent.

Out of the total income, Rs 367 crore was earned from passenger segment with a growth of 11 per cent.

"We saw substantial growth of 29 per cent in freight collection last fiscal because of high output of wheat and paddy in Punjab," he said.

However, railway authorities are looking at 10 per cent growth in income from passenger fares in current fiscal.

Ambala Division has a passenger traffic of 1.8 lakh persons per day.

Northern Railway is also in process of converting Ambala railway station to a world-class one. "We will be submitting our report to GM Northern Railway in 3 to 4 months and thereafter a consultant will be hired to guide us about converting it (Ambala) to a world-class station," said divisional railway manager, Y.P. Singh.

He said Centre has already decided to have world-class railway stations in Delhi, Chandigarh, Ambala, Patna, Chennai, among others.