Railways record 5% jump in freight, passenger traffic in last 8 months

The Indian Railways has registered a rise in both its freight and passenger business during April-November as compared to the same period last year, according to a data with the national transporter.

The freight traffic, which essentially serves the revenue of the railways, recorded an almost 5 per cent jump in loading during April 1-November 30, 2017, as compared to 2016.

Amongst the commodities which contributed to this performance in the freight traffic include iron ore, which registered a 5.16 per cent growth in loading, cement which grew by 10.14 per cent, steel by 16.23 per cent, container traffic by 12.71 per cent and coal by 2.23 per cent.

"In fact, freight loading has seen a 0.79 per cent growth which is more than what our target was for these months," a senior official of the railway ministry said.

Overall freight loading saw a growth of 747.70 million tonne in these eight months of this year, which is 32.02 million tonne more than last year.

"In the passenger sector, we have grown by 5.22 per cent during April 1-November 20 over the same period last year and added around 50.33 million more passengers. This shows that railways continues to be the preferred mode of transportation for the people," Member (Traffic) Mohd Jamshed said.

The railways, Jamshed said has also earned an additional Rs 1,579 crore in this period as against last year.

With these numbers in the last eight months, the railways seems to have finally come out of the rut after a dip in passenger traffic since 2013-14 and a marginal high in 2016.