February freight loading of Indian Railways at a new high of 124.03 million tonnes

Indian Railways’ freight loading of 124.03 MT is the best ever for the month.

“With this, Indian Railways has the best monthly freight loading for 30 consecutive months,” the Ministry of Railways said in a statement on Saturday.

Cumulative freight loading from 1st April 2022 to 28th February 2023 is 1367.49 MT as compared to 1278.84 MT achieved in 2021-22, an increase of 6.93% over the same period last year with an incremental loading of 88.65 MT has happened, the ministry said.

Railways has achieved incremental loading of 3.18 million tonnes in coal, 0.94 million tonnes in fertilizers, 0.66 million tonnes in balance of other goods and 0.27 million tonnes in containers.

“Growth in automobile loading has been another highlight of the freight business in FY 2022-23 and 5015 rakes have been loaded till February in FY 2022-23 as compared to 2966 rakes during the same period last year, an increase of 69% has increased,” the ministry said.

Indian Railways’ efforts to increase coal supply to power stations in coordination with the Ministry of Power and Coal has been one of the key features of freight performance in February.

Coal loading to power stations (both domestic and imported) increased by 3.39 million tonnes in January, with 45.63 million tonnes moved, as against 42.24 million tonnes in the previous year, a growth of 8.02%.

Cumulatively, in the first eleven months of the year, Railways has loaded more than 79.69 MT of additional coal to power houses, a growth of over 15.44% over the same period last year.

Freight net tonne kilometers in February 2023 to increase from 70 billion in February 2022 to 73 billion, registering a growth of 4.28%. The cumulative freight net tonne kilometers from April 2022 to February 2023 is 82 billion as against 74 billion, a growth of 10.81% over the same period last year.