'Rise in freight train operations indicate India's strides in logistics'

NEW DELHI: Operation of freight trains in India has been increasing year-on-year and touched five lakh rakes in the just concluded financial year 2022-23.

Data put out by the railways">Ministry of Railways showed 504,601 rakes were operated in 2022-23.

In 201-20, 2020-21, and 2021-22, 401,232, 423,384, and 483,298 rakes were operated, respectively, the railways ministry tweeted saying India's economy is getting strong and efficient.

Sharing the Railways' data, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on Twitter, "Encouraging numbers, indicating our strides in logistics and economic momentum."

Separately, Indian Railways (IR) recorded monthly freight loading of 126.46 million tonnes in April 2023.

The incremental loading in the month of April has been 4.25 MT -- a growth of 3.5 per cent over the April figures achieved in 2022. Freight revenue in April is Rs 13,893 crore as compared to Rs 13,011 in April 2022, a growth of 7 per cent.

Indian Railways has 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 fertilizers.

Railways have been making sustained efforts to improve the ease of doing business as well as improve service delivery at competitive prices which has resulted in new traffic coming to railways from both conventional and non-conventional commodity streams.