Railways eyes 2 bn tonnes in freight movement of coal loading by 2023-2024

The railways is eyeing two billion tonnes in freight movement on the back of coal loading, in the next five years, thus joining the elite club of Chinese, Russian and USA railways, a senior official said on Tuesday.

As of now, coal loading is around 555 million tonnes (MT), which is 22 MT more than the previous year's, and the railways is banking on this growth to leapfrog into the 2-billion tonnes target.

"The coal projection for 2020-2022 is 1,500 MT in India. The present 555 MT of loading should reach around 800 MT in the next two-three years and then it should increase to 1,000 MT thereafter. So, in this way there is demand of growth everywhere.

"Steel sector is booming for which we have to move iron-ore. There are hundreds of indents pending for rakes, cement plants are proliferating and they have set up grinding units for which rakes are needed for movement. Container traffic is also increasing. Our target is to reach 2,000 MT (two billion tonne) by 2023-2024," said Mohd Jamshed, Member, Traffic, Railway Board.

Jamshed also said the railways will diversify into other commodities. The railways was mulling offering concessions to draw traffic by allowing many such goods where loading is below the one million tonne mark.