CHENNAI: Southern Railway has earned freight revenue of Rs 427.35 crore in April and May this year, registering a 52.89 per cent increase as against Rs 279.52 crore earned in the corresponding period last year. Similarly, the zonal railway’s cumulative parcel revenue stood at Rs 14.92 crore in the first two months of financial year 2021-22, an increase of 331.58 per cent over the same period last year (Rs 3.46 crore).
The railway attained the highest speed in goods trains amongst other railways and freight load has also surpassed the target of 0.244 metric tonnes.
On the freight front, 5.324 million tonnes were loaded during April -May 2021 which is 1.357 MT (34.2%) higher than corresponding period last year. As many as 1,756 rakes were handled during April-May 2021, compared to 402.
The freight basket consisted of coal, raw material for steel plants, iron and steel, cement, food grains, fertilizers, petroleum products, automobiles containers and others. Commodities like coal, iron and steel, cement, fertilizers and POL products saw an increase in loading when compared to the previous year – 193 MT of coal in 837 rakes was loaded during April-May 2021, which was 47.68% higher compared to 2.162 MT (568 rakes) in April-May 2020.
On parcel front, 29,376.5 tonnes were loaded, an increase of 172.5 per cent over the same period last year (10,780.4 tonnes).