Railways have made ongoing efforts to improve the ease of doing business as well as the delivery of services at reasonable costs, resulting in new traffic flowing to railways from both conventional and non-conventional commodity streams.
Freight train operations in India have increased year on year, reaching five lakh rakes in the just finished fiscal year 2022–23. According to Ministry of Railways data, 504,601 rakes were used in 2022–23. The railroad ministry stated that 401,232, 423,384, and 483,298 rakes were run in 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2021-22, respectively, and that India’s economy is becoming stronger and more efficient.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared data from the railways on Twitter, writing, “Encouraging numbers, indicating our strides in logistics and economic momentum.”
Separately, in April 2023, Indian Railways (IR) achieved a monthly goods loading of 126.46 million tonnes. The incremental loading in April was 4.25 MT, representing a 3.5per cent increase over the April levels attained in 2022. Freight revenue in April was Rs 13,893 crore, up from Rs 13,011 crore in April 2022, representing a 7per cent increase.
Indian Railways achieved a loading of 62.39 MT in coal in April 2023 as compared to 58.35 MT in April 2022, followed by 14.49 MT in iron ore, 12.60 MT in cement, 9.03 MT in balance other goods, 6.74 MT containers, 5.64 MT steel, 5.11 MT food grains, 4.05 MT mineral oil, and 3.90 MT in fertilisers.
