On mission mode, Indian Railways Freight loading for the month of September 2020 till 6 September 2020 crossed last year’s loading and earnings for the same period thus registering more than 10% jump.

Highlights of the report

    • In the month of September 2020 till 6 September 2020 Indian Railways loading was 19.19 million tons which is 10.41% (1.81 million tons) higher compare to last year’s loading for the same period (17.38 million tons).

    • In this period Indian Railways earned Rs. 1836.15 crore from freight loading which is also Rs. 129.68 crore higher compare to last year’s earnings for the same period (Rs. 1706.47 crore).

    • In the month of September 2020 till 6 September 2020 Indian Railways loading was 19.19 million tons which includes 8.11 million tons of coal, 2.59 million tons of iron ore, 1.2 million tons of food grains, 1.03 million tons of fertilizers and 1.05 million tons of cement (excluding clinker).

    • It is worth mentioning that a number of concessions/ discounts are also being given in Indian Railways to make Railways 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.

    • Covid 19 has been used by Indian Railways an opportunity to improve all round efficiencies and performances.

Meanwhile, Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) of Indian Railways is gathering speed. Constant weekly monitoring and meetings with all stake holders lead to acquisition of patches and sections of land which were long delayed. Indian Railways even deployed its experts to assist the contractors to tide over operational difficulties at ground level implementation.

    • Dashboard is being created to monitor km by km progress of project.

    • Open house video conferencing also started on daily basis to resolve critical issues at real time

    • Up to date payment to contractors as COVID-19 relief under GCC clause

    • Simplification of GST payment process

    • Railway supervisors provided to private contractors to get things moving at the ground level

    • Issues like land possession for RUB/ROB, mutation of land, land issue for construction of high tension line, disbursement for private land, award for land as per original methodology etc. were resolved with various State Governments in last one week to expedite the progress of Dedicated Freight Corridor.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants. The views expressed here are personal.)