Indian Railways, which expects to load the same level of traffic this month against last year, hopes to load an extra 50 per cent traffic this year.

Lower freight charges, running trains with higher speed, setting up business development units and connecting a whole new bunch of destinations have helped railways achieve this loading in the present fiscal.

Admitting this was an “ambitious” target, Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav said he is confident that this extent of extra loading can be achieved. On July 27, the freight loading was 3.13 million tonne (mt) — which is higher than last year for the same date.

Freight business in fiscal 2020 had three distinct phases – there was three per cent of growth till June, followed by a five per cent drop in growth in second phase till October. Following this, the busy season surcharge was waived. These steps resulted in railways getting a growth in freight from November 2019 to March 15, 2020, said PS Mishra, Member-Traffic, Railway Board. He added that the surcharge waiver continues till now.

All Zonal Railways, including Northern and North Central Zone, have set up business development units at divisional levels to attract more customers. Northern Railways is also inviting strategic partners and investments for improving infrastructure at good-sheds, said Rajiv Chowdhry, General Manager, Northern Railways.

Whether or not Indian Railways will introduce more discounts, will depend on the extra volumes that the customers get, according to Mishra.

Average speed of trains have increased with passenger trains going off the Indian Railways network. “The average speed of Freight Trains on 27 July 2020 was 46.16 kmph which is more than double as compared to last year for the same date (22.52 kmph). In the month of July the average speed of freight trains is 45.03 kmph which is around double as compared to last year for the same month (23.22 kmph),” said an official release.

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