Indian Railways recorded a freight loading of 126.97 million tonne (MT) in August 2024, which is marginally higher than 126.95 MT of goods carried in the same month last year. In the first five months of FY25, the national transporter carried 653.22 MT of goods, which is 2.92% higher than the corresponding period last year.
The Budget 2024-25 has targetted freight loading of 1,650 MT for the current financial year, necessitating a growth 4.43% on year.
In fact, the railways has been witnessing a steady decline in the freight volume growth over the past two years.
For example, the total freight volume growth stood at 6.56% in FY23 but it dipped to 4.7% in FY24. This is especially concerning since the government has set an ambitious target to achieve 3,000 MT of freight loading by 2030. In addition, the national rail plan has envisaged that the share of freight traffic by rail should go up from current share of 27% to 45% by 2030. To meet the ambitious target of 3,000 MT, the government is expanding the rail network, upgrading the fleet and enhancing the operational efficiency.
“Indian freight and logistics market is growing upwards of 8% annually. If the railways is registering slower growth in freight traffic, it could well be losing out to other modes of transport, especially the road segment,” said a former railways official.
Meanwhile, the railways continue to remain hugely dependent on the coal transportation to generate volume and revenues. For instance, within all the commodities transported on the rail network in April-August 2024 period, coal held the top spot with 333.40 MT of coal being transported in five months, which was substantially higher than 266.71 MT transported between April and August last year.
In a statement, the railways said that the carrying freight through rail is an energy-efficient mode of transportation that has resulted in 68 million tonnes of carbon emissions savings since April 2022 as trains generate up to 80% less carbon dioxide, and consume 75-90% less energy as compared to road transport.
