Owing to Biparjoy cyclone and Balasore train accident, the freight loadings has witnessed a fall in June this year as compared to June last year.
The Indian Railways carried 123.056 million tons (MT) of goods in June 2023, while it carried 125.497 MT of freight loadings in June 2022, a decrease of over 2 MT.
In the last 32 months, this is for the first time that the June loadings have fallen as compared to the last June. However, the cumulative loadings of April-June this fiscal is 383.71 MT, as compared to 379.403 MT for the same period last year.
The operations of many trains, including goods service, were affected due to Biparjoy cyclone and also due to the Balasore train accident in June.
The Railways manitains that it took some days to restore the line in the section due to which trains were diverted and slowed down, which affected the goods trains also.
Freight earnings also saw a dip. The goods earnings for the month of June is Rs 13,316.28 crore as against Rs 13,444.61 crore in June last year, a decrease of Rs 128.33 crore.
However, the cumulative earnings during April-June period this year has shown increase with Rs 41,880.62 crore as against Rs 40,568.30 crore for the corresponding period last year.
Currently, the Railways is focusing on safety works and capacity enhancement.
In the last fiscal 2022-23, the Railways had achieved a record freight loading of over 1,500 MT. Encouraged by the high growth, Railway Ministry has set a high loading target of over 1,600 MT for the year of 2023-24, which is also the PM Gati Shakti target for the Indian Railways.