Rlys freight traffic improves amid economy revival hopes
nNEW DELHI: The ministry of railways on Tuesday said its freight traffic on July 27 was marginally more than that on the same day last year and also doubled the speed of its freight trains “in spite of Covid-19 related challenges”.
The national carrier increased the average speed of its freight trains on July 27 was 46.16 kmph which is more than double, the 22.52 kmph of July 27 last year. According to the ministry, average speed in July was 45 kmph compared to 23.2 last year.
The speed may be because of a clearer network. The suspension of passenger trains since March 22 has led to decongestion of a bulk of the national transporter’s network. At present, only 230 special passengers are plying while cargo and parcel trains have continued to operate through the lockdown and after it.
“In July, the average speed of freight trains is 45.03 kmph which is around double as compared to last year for the same month (23.22 kmph),” the ministry said.
Despite the higher freight loading on July 27, overall loading of freight trains remains 18.18% less than last year. Freight loading is a proxy for the economy. In general, as the economy revives and grows, the volume of freight increases.
On July 27, 1,039 rakes loaded with freight were ferried, including 76 rakes of foodgrain, 67 rakes of fertilizer, 49 rakes of steel, 113 rakes of cement, 113 rakes of iron ore and 363 rakes of coal.
“Railways has achieved record loading of foodgrains this fiscal which is 80%more than last year, and has introduced time-tabled (scheduled) parcel services , 4,541 services and transported 2.41 lakh tonnes cargo generating a revenue of ~86.88 crore (March 22 -July 27),” railway board chairman VK Yadav said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“In our country, the problem has been the sharing of tracks between passenger and freight trains... In the post-covid period, due to lower frequency of passenger trains, speed and hence frequency of freight trains may have increased. The most important thing is that with the commissioning of dedicated freight corridors in the next 2 years, this is going to be the new normal. The effort to on-board private players to run passenger trains has also been timed accordingly,” said Arindam Guha, Deloitte India’s partner.
Railways has set an ambitious target of achieving 50% more freight loading in the current financial year as compared with FY 2019-2020, Yadav said.
“These improvements will be institutionalised in the coming zero based time table. These steps will lead to higher freight traffic and earnings for Railways and cost competitive logistics for the entire country,¨ he added.