The Hindu Business Line : Railways sees higher earnings growth in key commodities

New Delhi, Dec. 26 With the imposition of busy season and congestion surcharges from October 1, Indian Railways has witnessed higher growth in earnings for most of the key commodities than the growth in their loadings during April 1-November 31.

The relatively higher earnings growth rates vis-À-vis loadings growth rate is also due to increase in effective freight charges through the levy of terminal and development charges earlier this financial year.

Coal, which accounted for the maximum share (42 per cent) of total loadings of the Railways, witnessed 11.04 per cent annual growth in earnings during April 1-Nov 31 helping Indian Railways mop up Rs 11,038.84 crore.

However, the corresponding increase in coal loadings was at a lower level of 8.41 per cent with IR loading 215.05 million tonnes of coal during the period. Another key performance indicator, the net tonne kilometre (NTKM) saw a 7.85 per cent growth for coal. NTKM takes into account the change in loadings as well as distance.

Iron ore

Similarly, for another commodity iron ore, which accounted for 17.4 per cent of total freight loadings, the Railways’ earnings surged by almost 24 per cent touching Rs 4,396.74 crore. But the corresponding growth in loadings for iron ore was at a relatively lower level of 17.04 per cent, with the NTKM growth for the commodity hovering around 15.3 per cent.

Earnings from cement, a commodity that has a 10 per cent share in the total Railway loadings, went up 7.51 per cent with the Railways’ earnings Rs 2,554.89 crore. The annual loadings growth for cement during the eight-month period was at a lower level of 5.35 per cent, with the Railways loading 50.37 million tonnes.

For fertilisers, while loadings went up 6.42 per cent, the earnings went up by a whopping 15.33 per cent during the period. Fertilisers accounted for almost five per cent share of commodity loadings for the Railways.

Foodgrains

Even for foodgrains, for which the Railways witnessed almost 14 per cent drop in loadings during the eight-month period, the corresponding drop in earnings was at a much lower level of 2.87 per cent.

For all freight loadings taken together, the same trend is reflected with the Railways registering almost 11 per cent annual growth in freight revenues for the eight-month period this fiscal despite a relatively lower growth (8 per cent) in loadings. It generated Rs 29,416.42-crore revenues from freight traffic during the first eight months of the current financial year, registering an increase of 10.99 per cent against Rs 26,502.79 crore during the corresponding period last year.

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Railways sees higher earnings growth in key commodities