Railways registers 10% freight growth to 203 million tonnes in FY21

May 29, 2021: Indian Railways has witnessed a double-digit freight traffic growth of 10 percent to 203.88 million tonnes (MT) in the financial year 2020-21 as compared to 184.88 MT in 2019-20.

“Freight figures continue to maintain the high momentum in terms of earnings and loading in the month of May 2021 for Indian Railways,” reads the release.

Indian Railways' freight loading for the month of May 2021 is 92.29 MT which is 10 percent more than May 2019 (83.84 MT) and 43 percent more than May 2020 (64.61 MT) for the same period.

The important items transported during May 2021 includes 97.06 million tonnes of coal, 27.14 million tonnes of iron ore, 7.89 million tonnes of food grains, 5.34 million tonnes of fertilizers, 6.09 million tonnes of mineral oil, 11.11 million tonnes of cement (excluding clinker) and 8.2 million tonnes of clinker.

In the month of May 2021, Indian Railways earned ₹9278.95 crore from freight loading.

Wagon turnaround time has seen an improvement of 27 percent this month. In May 2021, wagon turnaround time is registered at 4.83 days as compared to 6.61 in May 2019.

It is worth mentioning that a number of concessions/ discounts are also being given in Indian Railways to make railways freight movement very attractive.

It may be noted that the speed of freight trains has been enhanced in the existing network.

Freight speed Improvement leads to saving of costs for all stakeholders. Freight speed has doubled over the last 18 months.

Few zones (around six zones) have registered the average speed of freight trains even above 50 kmph. Due to geographical conditions, certain sections offer good speed to freight trains.  An average speed of 45.42 kmph is registered in May 2021 for freight trains which are 23 percent more as compared to 36.84 kmph for the same period.

Covid 19 has been used by Indian Railways as an opportunity to improve all-around efficiencies and performances.