In a major impetus to the ‘Hungry for Cargo’ motto, Indian Railways has initiated various efforts, resulting in yet another landmark breakthrough. In just six months of the current financial year, the Western Railway zone has crossed the milestone of Rs 5000 crore in freight revenue. According to a press release issued by Western Railways, the zone has achieved revenue of approximately Rs 5,040 crore during the period from 1 April 2021 to 27 September 2021, registering almost 20 per cent growth in comparison to the corresponding period of previous year. The statement further said, the revenue from items including Industrial Salt, Coal, Cement, Automobile and Containers, has shown an increasing trend as compared to the same period of last year.
Moreover, loading of non- traditional items such as Bentonite, Gypsum, Soda Ash, Bauxite are also showing a positive growth in revenue over last year. With the aggressive marketing efforts of the BDUs, the Western Railway zone has been able to attract new traffic in the form of new customers / destinations / originating stations / commodities, thereby generating Rs 332.86 crore additional revenue. In a bid to enhance revenue, the national transporter is planning a paradigm shift in policies like running of RO-RO services, Station to Station proposals as well as grant of concessions in freight, for the current fiscal.
According to Western Railways, the zone has transported commodities weighing more than 1.41 lakh tonnes through 360 parcel special trains from 1 April to 27 September 2021, which included agricultural produce, medical equipment, medicines, milk, fish, etc. The revenue generated through this transportation has been approximately Rs 49.61 crores.
Moreover, as many as 90 Milk Special trains were run by the zonal railway, with a load of more than 63 thousand tonnes as well as 100 per cent utilization of the wagons. Similarly, as many as 106 COVID-19 special parcel trains were also run with a load of about 20382 tonnes to transport essential supplies. Additionally, 75 indented rakes carrying nearly 35,000 tonnes were also operated with 100 per cent utilization. Besides 89 Kisan Rail trains have also been run with load of more than 22,500 tonnes during this period from various divisions.
