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Railways freight traffic improves amid economy revival hopes
The national carrier increased the average speed of its freight trains on July 27 was 46.16 kmph which is more than double, the 22.52 kmph of July 27 last year. According to the ministry, average speed in July was 45 kmph compared to 23.2 last year.
The ministry of railways on Tuesday said its freight traffic on July 27 was marginally more than that on the same day last year and also doubled the speed of its freight trains “in spite of Covid-19 related challenges.”
The national carrier increased the average speed of its freight trains on July 27 was 46.16 kmph which is more than double, the 22.52 kmph of July 27 last year. According to the ministry, average speed in July was 45 kmph compared to 23.2 last year.
The speed may be because of a clearer network. The suspension of passenger trains since March 22 has led to decongestion of a bulk of the national transporter’s network. At present only 230 special passengers are plying while cargo and parcel trains have continued to operate through the lockdown and after it.
“In the month of July the average speed of freight trains is 45.03 kmph which is around double as compare to last year for the same month (23.22 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,” the ministry said.
Despite the higher freight loading on July 27, overall loading of freight trains remains 18.18% less than last year. Frieght loading is a proxy for the economy. In general, as the economy revives and grows, the volume of freight increases.
On July 27, a total 1039 rakes loaded with freight were ferried by Indian Railways, including 76 rakes of foodgrain, 67 rakes of fertilizer, 49 rakes of steel, 113 rakes of cement, 113 rakes of iron ore and 363 rakes of coal.
“Railways has achieved record loading of foodgrains this fiscal which is 80%more than last year, and has also introduced time-tabled (scheduled) parcel services , 4541 services and transported 2.41 lakh tonnes cargo generating a revenue of Rs 86.88 crore (From March 22 till July 27),” railway board chairman VK Yadav said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Food grain distributions during the lockdown had more than doubled with Indian Railways transporting 5.2 million tonnes of foodgrains in the month of April since the country went under a lockdown on March 25 to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease, Hindustan Times reported on April 27.
In our country the problem has been the sharing of tracks between passenger and freight trains. Hence speed was lower. In the post Covid period, due to lower frequency of passenger trains, speed and hence frequency of freight trains may have increased. The most important thing to note is that with the commissioning of dedicated freight corridors in the next 2 years, this is going to be the new normal. The effort to on-board private players to run passenger trains has also been timed accordingly,” said Arindam Guha, Deloitte India’s partner.
Railways has set an ambitious target of achieving 50% more freight loading in the current financial year as compared with FY 2019-2020, Yadav said.
“These improvements in freight movements will 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,¨ he added.
