Increased freight transportation boosting local economy'

Loading in freight carrying trains from NFR (Northeast Frontier Railways) have been showing an increasing trend.
Increased freight transportation boosting local economy'

GUWAHATI: Loading in freight carrying trains from NFR (Northeast Frontier Railways) have been showing an increasing trend. During November 2020, the NFR loaded 8.768 million tonnes of goods, which is 2.8% more than the loading done during the corresponding month of 2019. During November, cement loading increased by 925% and loading of P.O.L (petroleum products) increased by 68.6% and container loading increased by 16.7% in comparison to the corresponding month of 2019.

Working on a mission mode, the freight-loading figures continued to maintain the higher momentum in terms of earnings and loading in November 2020, and crossed last year's loading and earnings for the same period. During November, the average wagon loading per day was 58726 which is 4.6% higher than 56128 wagons (average/day) loaded during October. The impressive figure of increase in freight loading during last few months indicates steady economic recovery.

In November 2020, the Indian Railways loading was 109.68 million tonnes which is 9% higher compare to last year's loading for the same period (100.96 million tonnes).Loading includes 48.48 million tonnes of coal, 13.77 million tonnes of iron ore, 5.10 million tonnes of foodgrains, 5.41 million tonnes of fertilizers and 6.62 million tonnes of cement (excluding clinker).

In this period the Indian Railways earned Rs 10657.66 crores from freight loading which is also Rs. 449.79 crore (4%) higher compare to last year's earnings for the same period (Rs. 10207.87 crore).

Various steps and initiatives are being taken by NFR to further improve the transportation of freight. This includes, opening of new stations for handling inward and outward goods traffic, regular virtual meetings with multinational companies and stakeholders for attracting piecemeal loading,initiatives by the Business Development units at HQs & Divisional levels and near doubling of freight speed due to continuous monitoring of assets. Transporters can dial Helpline number 139 from anywhere seeking help/guidance regarding transportation of materials through trains.

It is worth mentioning that a number of concessions/ discounts have also been introduced in Indian Railways to make Railway's Freight movement very attractive.

In order to improve transportation of freight traffic, the NFR opened new stations for handling inward and outward goods traffic. Few more railway stations have been opened for freight traffic during last month enabling easier transportation of various goods by customers.

To boost outward freight traffic Damdim station under Alipurduar Jn division has been opened for handling of goods booking facility for stone chips; boulder traffic with effect from October 28, 2020. The Lalabazar Station under Lumding Division has also been opened for handling Parcel traffic with effect from October 19, 2020.

The Business Development Units (BDU) created in all the five divisions of NFR are regularly getting in touch with existing and likely transportation agencies to know the actual need of various industries. As a result, 76 Parcel Vans consisting of FMCG products have been loaded from Azara and Changsari to Naharlagun and Agartala during October 2020.

The first Private Freight Terminal (PFT) in NFR of M/s Pristine Hindustan Infraprojects Pvt. Ltd at New Jalpaiguri station under Katihar division which was opened for permissible inward traffic with effect from September 17, 2020 has also now been open for outward booking of permissible traffic for a period of six months with effect from October 29, 2020. This is expected to benefit transporters in a big way, stated a release.

NFR has successfully registered 159 Terminals as e-mart registration which is 94% of total 170 Terminals upto October 2020. It may be mentioned here that, the mobile app namely 'IR RAILSUGAM' mobile app was lauched by the Indian Railways sometimes ago to capture the details of logistic service providers at various loading / unloading terminals throughout Indian Railways through registration. This has provided the much needed link for getting the value added services to freight customers and logistic service providers for services like transportation facility, warehousing facility, labour facility or aggregators etc.

As a result of the various initiatives record 1035 freight rakes have been unloaded at various freight terminals of NFR during October 2020 as against 782 during the same month of last year. This is an improvement of about 32.35%.

It may be noted that improvements in freight movements will be institutionalized and incorporated in the upcoming zero-based timetable. COVID-19 has been used by the Indian Railways as an opportunity to improve all-round efficiencies and performances, stated a release.

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