Railways' April-January freight earnings up 9.7 per cent at Rs55,383 crore

Indian Railways' freight revenue rose 9.7 per cent to Rs55,382.80 crore during the 10 months of the current financial year (April 2011-January 2012) from Rs50,487.91 crore during the similar period of the previous fiscal.

Railways carried 791.84 million tonnes of freight during April-January 2011-12 compared with 755.86 million tonnes during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, an increase of 4.76 per cent year-on-year.

Net tonne km of freight traffic went up to 5,24,186 million during April-January 2011-2012, from 4,98,014 million during April-January 2010-11, showing an increase of 5.26 per cent.

Freight earnings in January stood at Rs6,173.57 crore, of which, Rs2,583.54 crore came from transportation of 41.35 million tonnes of coal, followed by Rs481.60 crore from 8.25 million tonnes of iron ore, Rs615.32 crore from 9.92 million tonnes of cement, Rs434.18 crore from 4.24 million tonnes of foodgrains, Rs322.21 crore from 3.46 million tonnes of petroleum oil and lubricant (POL),

Rs403.34 crore from 3.23 million tonnes of pig iron and finished steel, Rs462.01 crore from 5.32 million tonnes of fertilizers, Rs99.97 crore from 1.21 million tonnes of raw material for steel plants except iron ore, Rs312.78 crore from 3.45 million tonnes by container service and Rs458.62 crore from 6.60 million tonnes of other goods.