Indian Railways, which has been using COVID as an opportunity for all round efficiencies, has set a target to load an extra 50% freight traffic this year.
“Our target is that this year, we should be able to get something around 50% more [freight loading]… it’s a very ambitious target, but the way Railways Officers and employees have worked in this very difficult period, I am very sure that we will be able to achieve that target,” Railways Board Chairman V. K. Yadav said on Tuesday.
Making efforts in this direction to achieve the target, the Indian Railways freight loading on July 27 achieved a milestone and surpassed last years level by loading 3.13MT of freight which is close to 8%.
Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Railways tweeted about the achievement.
Keeping Wheels of Trade Rolling: Further accelerating freight transportation, Railways doubled the speed & increased loading by 8%, as compared to same day last year.
— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) July 29, 2020
The minister also pointed at the increase in the speed of the freight trains which is a deciding factor for increased freight loading. The average speed of freight trains on 27 July 2020 was 46.16 kmph which is more than double as compared to last year for the same date (22.52 kmph).
West Central Railway with the average speed of 54.23 kmph, Northeast Frontier Railway with the speed of 51 kmph, East Central Railway 50.24 kmph, East Cost Railway 41.78 kmph, South East Central Railway 42.83 kmph, South Eastern Railway 43.24 kmph and Western Railway with the speed of 44.4 kmph are the leading Railway Zones in the average speed of freight train in Indian Railways.
These improvements in freight movements come as passenger trains go off the Indian Railways network. The improvements, as per reports, are to be institutionalized and incorporated in the upcoming zero-based time table. These steps will lead to significantly higher freight traffic and earnings for Railways and cost-competitive logistics for the entire country.
Furthermore, Railways is also giving a number of concessions/discounts to make rail freight movement very attractive
