the South Central Railway (SCR) combined freight loading has surpassed the loading during the same period last year with an overall loading of 7.56 MT in September when compared to 7.51 MT in September last year despite the pandemic continuing to rage across the country.
Growth rebound in loading has been across the spectrum with all commodities witnessing higher loading levels except coal. The policy initiatives for cement sector like relaxations in the mini rake loading, tariff concession for long-lead traffic and relaxing train load benefits norms among others – combined with the active canvassing by oficial teams has contributed to an increase by 29% to 2.2 MT in September 2020 compared to 1.7 MT last year.
Foodgrains loading witnessed a growth of 15% and loading of fertilizers increased by 23.5% to 0.68 MT compared to 0.55 MT last year. Similar growth trends were also witnessed in other commodities with 26% growth in loading of raw material commodities for steel plants - 0.24 MT this year and 0.19 MT earlier, 14% growth in loading of petroleum products (0.032 MT & 0.028 MT), 22% growth in containers loading (0.11 MT & 0.09 MT) and 9% growth in loading of other commodities (0.36 MT & 0.33 MT), said general manager Gajanan Mallya on Thursday.
Average speed of freight trains was drastically improved by 97%, from 26 kmph to 51 kmph. In fact, the SCR recorded the third best average speed in the freight train movements across the Indian Railways, said chief PRO Ch. Rakesh. The GM appreciated the efforts put in by various teams of operating and commercial departments.