Indian Railways has inched ahead of 2019’s freight loading during the month of July. The national transporter posted an 80 per cent jump in food grains freight load, a clear sign of revival. Things also went up on coal, cement, iron, steel, foodgrains and fertilisers front.
On July 27, Indian Railways managed to load 3.13 MT of goods as compared to 3.12 MT in the same period last year, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 1,039 rakes were loaded with freight which includes 76 rakes of foodgrain, 67 rakes of fertiliser, 49 rakes of steel, 113 rakes of cement, 113 rakes of iron ore and 363 rakes of coal, the Railways said.
The average speed of freight trains on July 27 was 46.16 kmph which is more than double as compared to last year’s 22.52 kmph for the same date, it said.
Railways managed to turn the tables by implementing a series of measures like improving the average speed of freight train and by undertaking more than 200 infrastructure works during the past four months that resulted in improved movement.
In July, the average speed of freight trains was 45.03 kmph which is around double compared to last year’s 23.22 kmph for the same month, the Railways said.
However, the cumulative overall loading of freight trains remains 18.18 per cent less than last year. This is likely to improve as the transporter has successfully managed to bring down logistics cost for industry to match best international benchmarks.
The improvements in freight movements will be institutionalised and incorporated in the upcoming zero based time table which will lead to significantly higher freight traffic and earnings for Railways and make freight logistics cost-competitive for the entire country.
