New Delhi - Freight loading across Indian Railways saw a 5 per cent YoY increase to 1,591 million tonnes (mt) for FY24, as compared to 1,512 mt in the year ago period. This is the highest-ever freight loading by the Railways.

“FY24 saw an incremental loading of 79 mt making it one of best year’s for the Railways,” an official said.

During the fiscal, Railways achieved loading of 787.61 mt in coal or nearly 50 per cent of total freight loading; while it achieved a freight loading of 180.95 mt in iron ore, 153.80 mt in cement and 114.36 mt in other goods. Container traffic was 85.04 mt, pig iron and finished steel moved was to the tune of 69.89 mt while fertilizer movement was around 59.18 mt. Foodgrains movement was 51.45 mt while petroleum, oil and lubcricants movement was 50.49 mt.

The Railways also carried out electrification across 7,188 route kilometers as against 6,565 route km in FY23.

The average per day route electrification pace is now up to 19.6 km per day in Fy24, as against 1.42 km per day in FY14.

Around 53,00 kms of in new line laying (which includes new line laying, doubling and gauge conversion) have been achieved in FY 2023-24 as compared to 5,241 Kms during 2022-23. Thus, average daily track laying comes out to be 14.5 km per day.

In order to increase line capacity to run more trains on existing high-density routes, the Indian Railways has been pushing for automatic block signals. In FY24, the Railways upgraded 582 km with automatic signalling, as compared to 530 km during 2022-23.