Freight loading by the Railways touch 134 million tons in May, mostly low freight cargo

Railways achieved a freight loading of 134 million tons (MT) in May 2023, showing an improvement of 2 per cent over last year's freight loading of 131 Million Tons for the same period, stated the Ministry of Railways.

"Freight revenue of Rs. 14,641.83 crores have been achieved in May 2023 against Rs 14,083.86 crore freight earnings in May 2022, thereby an improvement of about 4 per cent over last year,"  Ministry of Railways. Said in a statement

On a cumulative basis from April - May 2023, a freight loading of 260.28 Million Tons was achieved against last year's loading of 253.48 Million Tons, an improvement of approximately 3 per cent over last year's loading.

"Railways have earned Rs 28,512.46 crore against Rs 27,066.42 crore over the last year which is an improvement of approx 5 per cent as compared to the same period of the last year," said the Ministry.

The freight loading was 65.89 Million Tons in Coal, followed by 15.23 Million Tons in Iron Ore, 13.20 Million Tons in cement, 10.96 Million Tons in balance other goods, 6.79 Million Tons in containers, 4.89 Million Tons in Fertilizer, 4.85 Million Tons in Food grains and 4.23 Million Tons in Mineral oil in May'2023.  Nearly 61 per cent of cargo handled by the railway, coal and iron ore belongs to the low freight category. This has remained so for the past several decades

Railways are following the Mantra, "Hungry For Cargo", and has made sustained efforts to improve the ease of doing business as well as improve service delivery at competitive prices. "The customer-centric approach and work of Business Development Units backed up by agile policymaking helped Railways towards this significant achievement,” the statement said.