Indian Railways sets new record in freight business! Transports 1,160 million tonnes in FY18

9th April 2018

Big news for Indian Railways! A new record has been set by Railway Minister Piyush Goyal-led Indian Railways. According to Railway Ministry, in the financial year 2017-18, the national transporter has transported over 1,160 million tonnes of freight, which is the highest ever for Indian Railways.

There has been a significant growth in freight loading by Indian Railways in the last few years and in the last four years, Indian Railways managed to increase freight loading by more than 100 million tonnes.

The record in 2017-18 has been made after surpassing previous year’s (2016-2017) freight loading of 1,109 million tonnes. In years, 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 freight loading was of 1,051 million tonnes, 1,095 million tonnes and 1,104 respectively.

Moreover, in financial year 2017-18, four divisions of Indian Railways have loaded more than 100 million tonnes of freight. BSP division of Indian Railways loaded 140.5 million tonnes of freight in 2017-18 compared to 140.1 million tonnes of freight in 2016-17. DHN division of Indian Railways loaded 123.3 million tonnes of freight in 2017-18 compared to 111.1 million tonnes of freight in 2016-17. KUR division of Indian Railways loaded 118.1 million tonnes of freight in 2017-18 compared to 117.8 million tonnes of freight in 2016-17. The CKP division of Indian Railways loaded 109.5 million tonnes of freight in 2017-18 compared to 109.8 million tonnes of freight in 2016-17.

According to Railway Ministry, numerous policy interventions have been carried out in order to liberalize the freight sector. Multi-point loading has been introduced and siding policy has been liberalized by the national transporter. Indian Railways has also provided last mile connectivity through roadrailers, Roll on Roll offs.

Also, automatic freight rebate scheme in traditional empty flow direction have been introduced by Indian Railways. Time-tabled freight services have been introduced. In addition to these, goods terminals have been opened up for handling containers and container sector has been opened up for more commodities.

For Indian Railways, freight traffic is the major source of revenue. However, out of 13,000 trains which run daily on the national transporter’s network, only one-third of them are freight trains. It accounts for 65 per cent of Indian Railways’ total revenue.

Source: FINANCIAL EXPRESS