Indian Railways recorded the best monthly freight loading of 124.03 MT in February this year. The incremental loading in February was 4.26 MT, a growth of 3.55 percent over the previous best February figures achieved in 2022. With this, the Indian Railways achieved 30 straight months of best monthly freight loading, according to the Railway Ministry.
Overall coal volumes in February grew 5.7 percent, while the volume of thermal coal rose 8 percent, indicating that the Centre has begun preparation for summers when the power demand peaks.
Last year, the coal shortage coupled with an overload in logistics caused a nationwide power crisis during the hot summer months.
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As per the release, efforts from the Indian Railways to increase the supply of coal, in close coordination with the Ministries of Power and Coal, was one of the key factors behind the freight performance in the month of February.
The loading of coal, both domestic and imported to power generation plants increased by 3.39 MT in January with 45.63 MT of coal being moved, a growth of 8.02 percent.
Cumulatively, in the first 11 months of 2022-23, more than 79.69 MT extra coal has been transported to power generation plants by the Indian Railways indicating a growth of more than 15.44 percent as compared to the same period the year before.
The cumulative freight loading from April 2022 to February 2023 was 1367.49 MT as against 1278.84 MT achieved in 2021-22, indicating a growth of 6.93 percent with an incremental loading of 88.65 MT, over the same period last year.
Automobile freight led the charge for railways in the diversified freight segment in FY23 with a total of 5,015 automobile rakes being loaded. The segment indicated a 69 percent jump as compared to the previous year which had 2,966 rakes transported.
Further, almost one metric tonnes of fertilisers was transported in February as against last year with a growth rate of 25 percent.
Other freight such as POL, containers, and balance of other goods posted a growth of 7.77, 6.51 and 4.32 percent, respectively.
The freight net tonne kilometres (NTKMs) increased to 73 billion in February from 70 billion in the last year registering a growth of 4.28 percent.
The cumulative freight NTKMs from April 2022 to February this year was 82 billion as against 74 billion in the previous year showing a growth of 10.81 percent.
As per sector watchers, the numbers suggest that the railways will comfortably meet its budgeted target of 1475 Mt in the current fiscal year, as per a Business Standard report.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
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