The Indian Railways transported over 1,160 million tonnes of freight in 2017-18, which is the highest-ever for the national transporter, ministry officials said on Sunday.
In the last five years, there has been a steady growth in freight loading by the railways. While in 2016-2017, the total freight loading was 1,109 million tonnes, in the previous year it was 1,104 million tonnes, officials said.
They said in 2014-2015, the number stood at 1,095 million tonnes while in 2013-2014 the railways’ freight loading was 1,051 million tonnes.
Freight traffic is the major source of revenue for the railways. Only one-third of the 13,000 trains running daily on the national transporter’s network are freight trains, but it accounts for 65% of the railways’ total revenue.
Raw materials from producing centres to factories and finished/semi-finished products from factories to markets or ports for export are carried by the railways as freight.