Railways achieves record freight loading in Jan 21

New Delhi: Indian Railways achieved the highest ever freight loading in January 2021 clocking a figure of 119.79 MT and surpassing its previous record of loading 119.74 MT of freight in March 2019, the ministry said on Tuesday.

Indian Railways' freight loading figures for the last few months have been crossing the last year's figures for corresponding months and the cumulative freight loading figure this year is expected to surpass the last year's freight loading figure, a statement by the ministry said.

As per the statistics till February 8, Indian Railways loading was 30.54 million tonnes which include 13.61 MT of coal, 4.15 MT of iron ore, 1.04 MT of foodgrains, 1.03 MT of fertilizers, 0.96 MT of mineral oil and 1.97 MT of cement (excluding clinker). It is worth mentioning that a number of concessions and discounts are also being given to make the railways' freight movement very attractive. The COVID-19 pandemic has been used by Indian Railways as an opportunity to improve its all-round efficiencies and performances.