Indian Railways considers Covid-19 pandemic as opportunity to improve all round efficiencies

New Delhi, India (Urban Transport News): Showing extraordinary resilience against the Covid-19 pandemic, Indian Railways has witnessed double-digit growth in Freight Traffic. Freight figures continue to maintain the high momentum in terms of earnings and loading in the month of May 2021 for Indian Railways.

Railways recorded more than a 10 percent increase in Freight loading as compared to the normal year of FY2019-20. In FY2021-22, Indian Railways' total loading is 203.88 Million Tonnes (MT) which is 10 percent more than FY2019-20 loading figures (184.88 MT) for the same period.

"History will remember Indian Railways for its immense contribution to the fight against Covid. While maintaining National supply chains, it has ensured that wheels of progress keep moving at a fast pace," said Piyush Goyal, Union Railway Minister, while reviewing the operational performance of Zones & Divisions with top Railway officials.

"Go aggressively for full utilisation of record Capex allocation. Completion of infrastructure works would generate employment as well especially in challenging Covid times," he added.

On mission mode, Indian Railways' Freight loading for the month of May 2021 is 92.29 MT which is 10 percent more than May 2019 (83.84MT) and 43% more than May 2020 (64.61MT) 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 Foodgrains, 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 Rs. 9278.95 crores from freight loading. Wagon Turn around time has seen an improvement of 27% in 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 the 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 is 23% 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.