Speed Post News Network
New Delhi : Showing an extra ordinary resilience against the Covid, Indian Railways has registered DOUBLE DIGIT growth in Freight Traffic. Freight figures continue to maintain the high momentum in terms of earnings and loading in the month of May 2021 for it. Railways recorded more than 10% increase in Freight loading compared to normal year of 2019-20. In FY 2021-22, 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.
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 Foodgrains, 5.34 million tonnes of Fertilisers, 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, Railways earned Rs. 9,278.95 crores from freight loading.
Wagon Turnaround time has seen an improvement of 27% this month. In May, 2021, wagon turnaround time is registered at 4.83 days as compared to 6.61 in May 2019. It may be mentioned here that a number of concessions/ discounts are also being given by the Railways to make Railways Freight movement very attractive. The 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 last 18 months, according to a PIB release.
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 was registered in May 2021 for freight trains, which is 23% more 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.