New Delhi, Dec 1 (PTI) Indian Railways' freight loading of 109.68 MT for the month of November crossed last year's loading and earnings for the same period and also registered its highest loading for the current fiscal, a statement from the Railways said Tuesday.

In November 2020, the Railways loading was 109.68 million tonnes which is nine percent higher compared to last year's loading for the same period (100.96 million tonnes). In this period Indian Railways earned Rs 10,657.66 crore from freight loading which is also Rs 449.79 crore (4 percent) higher as compared to last year's earnings for the same period (Rs 10,207.87 crore).

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The loading this November included 48.48 million tonnes of coal, 13.77 million tonnes of iron ore, 5.1 million tonnes of foodgrains, 5.41 million tonnes of fertilizers and 6.62 million tonnes of cement (excluding clinker).

“This is the highest loading that we have done this year. In fact in the last four days of November, we have loaded 4 million tonnes of goods every day,” said Railway Board Chairman and CEO VK Yadav at a press conference on Tuesday.

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During this period, average wagon loading per day was 58,726 which was 4.6 percent higher than October, 2020 (56,128 wagons).

“Despite festival holidays and Cyclone Nivar affecting freight loading, Indian Railways continue to register impressive figures in freight loading in the last three months (15% each in both September and October) suggesting steady economic recovery.

“It is worth mentioning that a number of concessions/ discounts are also being given in Indian Railways to make freight movement very attractive. It may be noted that improvements in freight movements will be institutionalized and incorporated in the upcoming zero based time table,” the Railways said.

The Railways' new “zero based timetable” is expected to cut down travel time in long distance trains between 30 minutes and six hours on an average, Yadav said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)