In a major impetus to the ‘Hungry for Cargo’ initiative, various efforts initiated by Western Railways have started yielding positive results and this has resulted in yet another landmark achievement.
The Western Railways have crossed the milestone of Rs 5000 crore in freight revenue in just six months of the current financial year. This major feat has been made possible under the visionary leadership, able guidance and energetic motivation of Shri Alok Kansal – General Manager of Western Railway.
The giant strides taken by WR in capturing new commodities and markets have enhanced the freight traffic and proved to be a success. With these sustained efforts, WR is contributing to the multi-facet progress of the nation’s economy.
According to a press release issued by Shri Sumit Thakur - Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway, during the period from April 1, 2021, to September 27, 2021, WR earned approximately Rs 5,040 crore in revenue registering almost 20% growth in comparison to the previous year for the corresponding period.
This has been made possible due to the impressive loading of industrial salt, cement, coal, containers and automobile. The revenue from these commodities has shown an increasing trend as compared to last year for the same period.
Moreover, the loading of non-traditional commodities like gypsum, bentonite, bauxite, soda ash are also adding the revenue. With the aggressive marketing efforts of the Business Development Units (BDUs), WR has been able to attract new traffic in the form of customers/destinations/commodities / originating stations, thereby, generating additional revenue of Rs 332.86 crore.
With an aim to increase revenue further, a paradigm shift in policies such as running of RO-RO services, station to station proposals and grant of concessions in freight are being planned for the current financial year.
Mr Thakur further informed that over the last year, Western Railway has transported commodities weighing more than 1.41 lakh tonnes through its 360 parcel special trains, which included agricultural produce, medicines, medical equipment, fish, milk etc.
The revenue generated through this transportation was approximately Rs 49.61 crores. 90 Milk Special trains were run by Western Railway, with a load of more than 63 thousand tonnes and 100% utilization of the wagons.
Similarly, 106 COVID-19 special parcel trains with a load of approximately 20,382 tonnes were also run to transport essential commodities. In addition to this, 75 indented rakes carrying about 35,000 tonnes were also run with 100% utilization.
To help the farmers find new markets for their produce and also for its economical and fast transportation, 89 Kisan Rails with a load of more than 22,500 tonnes have also been run during this period from various divisions.
Mr Thakur also stated that this year, a total of 18,803 rakes of goods trains have been run by WR and carried 40.80 million tonnes of essential commodities as compared to 33.99 million tonnes in the corresponding period last year.
Moreover, 39,207 freight trains were interchanged with other zonal railways, of which 19,644 trains were handed over and 19563 trains were taken over at different interchange points.
