New Delhi: Indian Railways has carried forward the momentum of the previous year in the year 2022-23 as well, and has recorded best ever monthly freight loading of 125.50 MT in June ’22. The incremental loading in the month of June has been 12.72 MT, that is, a growth of 11.28 per cent over the previous best June figures achieved in 2021.With this, the Indian Railways has had 22 straight months of best ever monthly freight loading.

This growth has been fuelled by incremental loading of 13.19 MT in coal, followed by 1.68 MT in cement and clinker, 1.57 MT in balance other goods and 0.64 MT in food grains. The cumulative freight loading in the first quarter of the year has been 379.4 MT as against 339.3 MT achieved in 2021-22, that is, an incremental loading of 40.09 MT, with a growth of 12 per cent over the same period last year.

The freight NTKMs (net tonne kilometers) have increased from 63.3 billion in June ’21 to 75.8 billion in June ’22 registering a growth of 20 per cent. This is because of the fact that apart from increase in freight loading there has been an increase in freight leads, which has increased by 7.4 per cent. The cumulative NTKMs in the first three months have also grown by 19.8 per cent.

The sustained efforts of Indian Railways to increase supply of coal to power houses, in close coordination with Ministries of Power and Coal have been one of the key features of the freight performance in the month of June. The loading of coal - both domestic and imported - to power houses has increased by 15.9 MT in June with 51.2MT coal being moved to power houses as against 35.3 MT last year, that is, a growth of 45 per cent. /BI/