New Delhi (NVI): Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the Railways recorded over 10 percent growth in freight loading this year as compared to the financial year of 2019-20, the Ministry said today.
“Showing an extraordinary resilience against the Covid, Indian Railways has witnessed double-digit growth in Freight Traffic. The freight figures continue to maintain the high momentum in terms of earnings and loading in May 2021 for Indian Railways,” it said in a statement.
“In FY 2021-22, Indian Railways total loading is 203.88 Million Tonnes (MT) which is 10% more than FY 2019-20 loading figures (184.88 MT) for the same period,” it said.
On mission mode, Indian Railways’ Freight loading for the month of May 2021 is 92.29 MT which is 10% more than May 2019 (83.84 MT) and 43% more than May 2020 (64.61 MT) for the same period.
The important items transported during May 2021 includes 97.06 million tonnes of Coal, 27.14 million tonnes of Iron Ore, 7.89 million tonnes of Food grains, 5.34 million tonnes of Fertilizers, 6.09 million tonnes of Mineral Oil, 11.11 million tonnes of Cement (excluding clinker) and 8.2 million tonnes of Clinker.
In the month of May 2021, Indian Railways earned Rs. 9278.95 crores from freight loading, the Ministry said.
Wagon Turnaround time has seen an improvement of 27% in this month, it said, adding that in May 2021, wagon turnaround time was registered at 4.83 days as compared to 6.61 in May 2019.
It is worth mentioning that numbers of concessions/discounts are also being given in Indian Railways to make Railways Freight movement very attractive, it said.
It may be noted that speed of freight trains has been enhanced in the existing network.
Freight speed Improvement leads saving of costs for all stakeholders. Freight speed has doubled over the last 18 months.
Few zones (around six zones) have registered the average speed of freight trains even above 50 Kmph. Due to geographical conditions, certain sections offer good speed to freight trains. An average speed of 45.42 Kmph is registered in May 2021 for freight trains which are 23% more as compared to 36.84 Kmph for the same period, the statement read.
