The year 2020 has been a very difficult time for people globally due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This did not deter the officers and staff of Western Railway (WR) to give their best to keep the supply chain of essential commodities moving. Even when the country was on total lockdown, WR’s freight trains were on the move, reaching every corner of the country.
Highlights of freight loading:
- It is a great achievement for all at Western Railway, that despite the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic, WR has achieved loading of 61.24 Million Tonnes till date in the financial year 2020-21 & has surpassed the cumulative freight loading figures of the corresponding period of last financial year.
- This feat was made possible due to the able guidance & continuous monitoring by Shri Alok Kansal – General Manager of Western Railway.
- According to a press release issued by Shri Sumit Thakur-Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway, inspite of various challenges, such as labour constraints etc. faced due to the Covid-19 pandemic, WR accomplished loading of 61.24 Million Tonnes in the financial year 2020-21, on 10th January, 2021, as compared to corresponding period of last year’s loading of 61.20 MT.
- Due to the total lockdown during April-May’20, WR could load only 8.84 MT against previous year’s loading of 13.10 MT which is less by 32.5%.
- It was only from June onwards, that due to sustained efforts, an improvement was registered, and last year’s freight loading figure of 60.72 MT was crossed on 8th January 2021.
- WR has shown remarkable performance in Fertilizer loading with growth of 11.1% compared to last year.
- Cement loading registered growth of 16.9% as compared to last year.
- Iron & Steel has increased by 93.4%.
- Food grain loading has increased from 0.17 MT to 0.73 MT in current year, as compared to last year’s same period.
- Others commodity loading increased by 3.3% due to growth in loading of Auto & Salt. WR has achieved best ever loading figures for the month of December 2020 in many spheres such as:
- Wagon loading
- Container loading
- Cement loading
- Salt
- Iron & Steel
- WR ran the highest number of Crack Trains i.e 3500 trains in December 2020, as compared to previous best of 3353 in October 2020.
- Shri Thakur further added that WR’s Business Development Unit of Rajkot Division clinched an additional traffic of Industrial Salt for a new destination.
- Salt was transported from Napa Goods Shed in Rajkot to Mithapur near Dwarka.
- Revenue generated through this loading is above Rs 8 lakh.
Parcel special trains:
- Since 23rd March to 10th Jan, 2021, commodities weighing more than 2.24 lakh tonnes have been transported by Western Rly through its 811 parcel special trains, which mainly included agricultural produce, medicines, fish, milk etc.
- The revenue generated through this transportation, has been about As 77.60 crore.
- During this period, 149 milk special trains were run by Western Rly, with a load of approx. 1.13 lakh tonnes and 100% utilization of the wagons.
- Similarly, 559 Covid-19 special parcel trains with a load of more than 67 thousand tonnes were also run to transport various essential commodities.
- In addition to this, 89 indented rakes carrying about 40 thousand tonnes were also run with almost 100% utilization.
- 14 Kisan Rails have been run with a load of 4234 tonnes.
- During the period from 22 March 2020 till 10th Jan, 2021, total 27,682 rakes of goods trains have been used by WR to supply essential commodities amounting to 60.94 million tonnes.
- 56,485 freight trains have been interchanged with other zonal railways, in which 28,196 trains were handed over and 28,289 trains taken over at different interchange points.
- One parcel special train left from Karambeli to New Guwahati on 11th January, 2021.
Source: Western Railway-Press Release | Image Credit (representational): Western Railway
