Indian Railways on Tuesday said it loaded the highest-ever freight of 114.8 mt (million tonnes) for the month of May, last month.
In May 2021, the freight loading stood at 114.8 mt, 9.7% higher than 104.6 mt in May 2019.
“Despite COVID-19 challenges, freight figures continue to maintain the high momentum in terms of earnings and loading in the month of May for Indian Railways. On mission mode, Indian Railways’ freight made the highest ever loading for the month of May,” according to a statement by the Ministry of Railways.
The items transported during May 2021, include coal (54.52 million tonnes), iron ore (15.12 million tonnes), foodgrain (5.61 million tonnes), fertilizer (3.68 million tonnes), mineral oil (3.18 million tonnes), Cement (5.36 million tonnes) and clinker (4.2 million tonnes).
The Railways added that the wagon turnaround time improved by 26% during May, with turnaround time of 4.81 days as compared to 6.46 days in May 2019.
“Freight speed has doubled over the last 18 months. Few zones (around four zones) have registered average speed of freight trains even above 50 Kmph. Due to geographical conditions, certain sections offer good speed to freight trains. An average speed of 45.6 Kmph is registered in May 2021 for freight trains which is 26% more as compared to 36.19 Kmph for the same period,” it added.
Oxygen express
In a separate statement, the Railways said so far it has delivered more than 22,916 metric tonnes of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) to 15 States, including Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Assam.
Till now, 614 metric tonnes of LMO has been offloaded in Maharashtra, nearly 3,797 metric tonnes in Uttar Pradesh, 656 metric tonnes in Madhya Pradesh, 5,557 metric tonnes in Delhi, 2089 metric tonnes in Haryana, 98 metric tonnes in Rajasthan, 2,440 metric tonnes in Karnataka, 320 metric tonnes in Uttarakhand, 2,190 metric tonnes in Tamil Nadu, 2,125 metric tonnes in Andhra Pradesh, 225 metric tonnes in Punjab, 380 metric tonnes in Kerala, 2062 metric tonnes in Telangana, 38 metric tonnes in Jharkhand and 320 metric tonnes in Assam.
