Team News Riveting
New Delhi, May 26
Chugging through the COVID induced crises, the Indian Railways could manage to register a double digit growth in freight traffic.
Railways recorded more than 10 per cent increase in freight loading as compared to the normal year of 2019-20. In the financial year (FY) 2021-22, Indian Railways total loading was 203.88 Million Tonnes (MT), which was 10 per cent more than FY 2019-20 loading figures (184.88 MT) for the same period.
Freight figures continue to maintain the high momentum in terms of earnings and loading in the month of May 2021 for Indian Railways.
On mission mode, Indian Railways’ Freight loading for the month of May 2021 is 92.29 MT which is 10 per cent more than May 2019 (83.84 MT) and 43 per cent more than May 2020 (64.61 MT) for the same period.
The important items transported during May 2021 includes 97.06 MT of Coal, 27.14 MT of iron ore, 7.89 MT of foodgrains, 5.34 MT of fertilizers, 6.09 MT of mineral oil, 11.11 MT of cement (excluding clinker) and 8.2 MT of clinker.
In the month of May 2021, Indian Railways earned Rs 9278.95 crore from freight loading.
Wagon turnaround time has seen an improvement of 27 per cent in this month. 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 a number of concessions/ discounts are also being given in Indian Railways to make Railways Freight movement very attractive.
It may be noted that the speed of freight trains has been enhanced in the existing network.
Freight speed Improvement leads to saving of costs for all stakeholders. Freight speed has doubled over the last 18 months.
Few zones (around six zones) have registered 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 is 23 per cent more as compared to 36.84 Kmph for the same period.
COVID-19 has been used by Indian Railways as an opportunity to improve all round efficiencies and performances.
