CHENNAI: Despite the pandemic, Southern Railway (SR) recorded steady growth in freight loading, and registered higher revenue generation this year. SR loaded 16.682 Million Tonnes (MT) of originating freight from April to October this year, registering a growth of 12.75 per cent compared to the corresponding period of last financial year, which stood at 14.796 MT, said a statement.
There was also a rise of 26.47 per cent in originating freight revenue. From April to October 2021, SR earned Rs 1,516.95 crore through freight loading as against Rs 1,199.50 crore in the same period last year. Besides, freight revenue was 2.61% higher than the Board’s target for April-October 2021.
The main commodities of freight loading during this year are iron & steel, Raw Material for Steel Plants (RMSP), coal, cement, fertilizer, petroleum products and containers. Notably, SR loaded 7.77 MT of coal, 0.94 MT of cement, 2.182 MT of fertilizers and 0.938 MT of food grains during the period.
Efforts of the multi-disciplinary Business Development Units (BDUs) set up at zonal and divisional levels have yielded results in diversifying its freight basket, added the statement. SR registered incremental revenue of Rs 86.7 crore from new commodities during April-October of FY 2021-22. During this period, 9.39 lakh tonnes of new commodities were loaded in 322 rakes, said a statement.