With the summer heat reaching record highs in northern India in May, Indian Railways ferried 9.3 per cent more coal than last year and freight volumes for all commodities on the railway network grew by 3.9 per cent in the previous month, according to government data.
“During the month of May 2024, originating freight loading of 139.16 million tonnes has been achieved against freight loading of 128.30 million tonnes in April 2024, which is an improvement of approximately 8.46 per cent,” a senior government official said.
During May, Indian Railways earned a freight revenue of Rs 15,230.9 crore, which is sequentially up by 8.2 per cent. In May 2023, the national transporter had earned Rs 14,641 crore, showing a 4 per cent increase in freight revenues.
The ministry has not been able to improve on its volumes for most commodities over last year (see chart). It has a target of achieving 3,000 million tonnes of freight by 2030, for which it would need to double its freight volumes at a rapid pace.
Meanwhile, it also saw higher passenger movement on account of the recently-ended Lok Sabha elections and summer rush, for which the railways are running 10,000 additional trains.
Coal volumes at most thermal power plants have been getting replenished at a steady pace, which officials say is largely due to better logistics planning before the onset of summer and the full commissioning of the eastern dedicated freight corridor, which connects Punjab with Bihar and covers some of the biggest chokepoints in the Indian rail network.
The data for the fiscal shows that cumulative freight loading in the first two months (April and May) of 2024-25 is 267.47 million tonnes, which is 2.7 per cent higher than the previous year.
First Published: Jun 05 2024 | 8:26 PM IST
