Indian Railways' freight loading in October up 15% compared to last year

NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways’ freight loading in the month of October this year grew 15% over the same period last year, continuing the trend of positive growth since the last few months.
In the month of October, Indian Railways' loading was 108.16 million tonnes compared to last year’s loading for the same period at 93.75 million tonnes.

Earnings from freight stood at Rs. 10,405.12 crores, which is 9% higher compared to last year’s earnings for the same period, which was Rs. 9536.22 crores.

Freight loading in October has also grown sequentially, compared to September 2020 numbers at 102.13 million tonnes.

October’s loading included 46.97 million tonnes of coal, 14.68 million tonnes of iron ore, 5.03 million tonnes of foodgrains, 5.93 million tonnes of fertilizers and 6.62 million tonnes of cement (excluding clinker).

“It is worth mentioning that a number of concessions and discounts are also being given in Indian Railways to make the Railways Freight movement very attractive,” the railway ministry said in a statement issued on Sunday.

To attract new business and incentivise other existing clients, the Railway ministry has held meetings with top leadership of iron and steel, cement, power, coal, automobiles and logistics service providers in the past weeks.

Business development units at zonal and divisional levels and near doubling of freight speed is contributing to sustainable growth momentum in spite of blocked freight services in Punjab, the ministry said.

Suspension of regular passenger train services amid the Covid-19 outbreak, remains one of the main reasons behind the increase in speed of freight trains. In the normal course of time, passenger trains get precedence over goods trains on the already constrained railway network.

In an exclusive interaction with ET last month, Railway Board Chairman and CEO Vinod Kumar Yadav had said that the Indian Railways will be able to sustain the growth in freight loading even after normal passenger train services resume.

Yadav said that the railway ministry set up business development units at the district, zonal and the Railway Board levels, in line with a corporate-oriented approach, which has boosted its freight loading.