Indian Railways’ freight loading of 109.68 MT for the month of November crossed last year’s loading and earnings for the same period and also registered its highest loading for the current fiscal, a statement from the Railways said Tuesday.

In November 2020, the Railways loading was 109.68 million tonnes which are 9 per cent higher compared to last year’s loading for the same period (100.96 million tonnes). In this period Indian Railways earned ₹10,657.66 crore from freight loading which is also ₹449.79 crore (4 per cent) higher as compared to last year’s earnings for the same period (₹10,207.87 crore).

The loading this November included 48.48 million tonnes of coal, 13.77 million tonnes of iron ore, 5.1 million tonnes of foodgrains, 5.41 million tonnes of fertilisers, and 6.62 million tonnes of cement (excluding clinker).

This is the highest loading that we have done this year. In fact, in the last four days of November, we have loaded 4 million tonnes of goods every day, said Railway Board Chairman and CEO VK Yadav at a press conference on Tuesday.

During this period, the average wagon loading per day was 58,726 which was 4.6 per cent higher than October, 2020 (56,128 wagons).

Economic recovery

Despite festival holidays and cyclone Nivar affecting freight loading, Indian Railways continue to register impressive figures in freight loading in the last three months (15 per cent each in both September and October) suggesting steady economic recovery.

It is worth mentioning that a number of concessions/discounts are also being given in Indian Railways to make freight movement very attractive. It may be noted that improvements in freight movements will be institutionalised and incorporated in the upcoming zero-based time table, the railways said.

The Railways’ new zero-based timetable is expected to cut down travel time in long distance trains between 30 minutes and six hours on an average, Yadav said.

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