Indian Railways records 119.32 MT freight loading in August 2022

Indian Railways (IR) has recorded monthly freight loading of 119.32 million tonnes (MT) in August 2022. The incremental loading in the month was 8.69 MT, growing by 7.86 per cent over the previous best August figures achieved in 2021. With this, Indian Railways has had 24 straight months of record monthly freight loading, as per the ministry of railways.

IR has achieved an incremental loading of 9.2 MT in coal, followed by 0.71 MT in fertiliser, 0.68 MT in balance other goods and 0.62 MT in containers.

The cumulative freight loading between April 1, 2022, and August 31, 2022, has been 620.87 MT as against 562.75 MT achieved in 2021-22 i.e. an incremental loading of 58.11 MT, with a growth of 10.32 per cent over the same period last year, the ministry said in a media release.

The freight NTKMs (net tonne kilometres) have increased from 63 billion in August 2021 to 73 billion in August 2022 registering a growth of 16 per cent. The cumulative NTKMs in the first five months have also grown by 18.29 per cent.

The sustained efforts of IR to increase the supply of coal to power houses, in close coordination with ministry of power and coal, was one of the key reasons for the freight performance in the month of August.