To explore ways to improve productivity, Union Minister of Railways and Commrce & Industry, Piyush Goyal, met the top leadership of the coal and power sectors yesterday.
As the Indian Railways is scrambling to fix a massive passenger fare sized hole in its 2020-21 revenues. The Ministry is now rummaging for all possible options to increase freight revenues to make up for the shortfall.
The minister is looking to consolidate its coal business and improve the joint operational productivity of Indian Railways, coal and power sector concerning coal haulage.
Coal haulage accounts for almost 50% of freight volumes of Railways. In FY 2019-20, the coal loading was 587 million tons. Total freight loaded in the year was 1,210 million tons.
Speaking on the occasion, Piyush Goyal called for coordinated operations among Railways, Coal and Power entities to ensure maximum mutual growth of all the three sectors.
An increase in coal loading will have a significant positive impact on railways freight revenues.
Indian Railways in September 2020 earned Rs. 9,896.86 crores from freight loading. This is Rs. 1,180.57 crores higher than last year’s earnings for the same period (Rs. 8,716.29 crores). The increase in freight revenue is 13.54%.
Freight loading in September 2020 is 15.3 % more than last year for the same period.
Going all out to increase freight revenues, IR has also begun providing various incentives for smaller payloads, lower haulage charges for utilizing empty rakes on return trips, and so on. IR is also making attempts to go after the rapidly increasing e-commerce shipping business.
