Indian Railways (IR) has loaded 109.68 million tonnes (mt) of cargo in November this year, up almost 9 per cent against the corresponding month last year. Loading of all commodities, barring coal, was higher during the month.

In November 2020, the Railways earned ₹10,657.66 crore from freight loading, 4 per cent higher compared to last year’s earnings for the same period (₹10,207.87 crore), Railway Board Chairman and CEO VK Yadav informed media in a web-conference here.

With this loading, the Railways continued the trend that started post-Covid-19 this fiscal when sequentially all months (barring August) loaded a higher quantum of cargo against the previous month.

Higher loading

With this, the Railways is also climbing back to pre-Covid times of freight load. It had loaded 110.19 mt of cargo in January this year, when the tracks were populated with both passenger and freight trains.

The higher loading was despite the festive month of Diwali when people went on leave; Punjab being cut-off from rails for 23 days during the month; and Cyclone Nivar.

On the high-speed corridor (bullet train project), the Railways, which has awarded ₹32,000 crore worth of projects in two tenders in Gujarat, expects project awards for Maharashtra starting next fiscal. This follows assurance from the Maharashtra Chief Secretary on the acquisition of 80 per cent land required for the project in the next four months, which is a pre-requisite to process tenders for the stretch in Maharashtra, according to Yadav.

The Railways has further introduced incentives of container trains and long-distance clinkers. Also, automobiles are increasingly being moved by trains, with 300 rakes loaded in November 2020 against 160 in November 2019. With this, automobile loading cumulatively between April-November 2020 this year surpassed last year’s by 39 per cent. Till November, 1,456 rakes were loaded this year against 1,046 rakes last year.

Passenger movement

On passenger trains, the Railway Board CRB stated that at present, 908 special trains are being operated. From these, 460 trains are seeing 100 per cent occupancy; 400 trains are seeing over 50 per cent occupancy and 48 trains are seeing below 50 per cent occupancy, according to Yadav.

It may be noted that the Railways has started running extra trains wherever there is a prolonged waitlist. The Railways operated 20 special trains from 21 September 2020. Additionally, 566 train services were operated as festival specials from October 20 to November 30.

The CRB added that RITES, a transport consultancy public sector unit, is conducting a feasibility study regarding corporatising production units of Indian Railways. He added that steps to corporatise the units will be taken forward only after discussion with the employees and the unions, and assured that employees’ jobs will be safe.

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