Railways' April-December freight revenue up 6.27 per cent at Rs44,790 crore

The Railways has reported a 6.27 per cent increase in revenue earnings from commodity freight traffic at Rs44,789.55 crore during April-December 2010 against Rs42,146.97 crore during the corresponding period last year.

Freight volume rose 3.17 per cent to 673.31 million tonnes during April-December 2010 from 652.63 million tonnes in the corresponding period last year.

Net tonne kilo metres (NTKM) went up by 3.44 per cent to 4,44,515 million during April-December 2010, from 4,29,729 million tonnes during April-December 2009.

Out of the total revenue earnings of Rs5,337.23 crore from freight traffic during December 2010, Rs2,061.37 crore came from transportation of 36.89 million tonnes of coal, followed by Rs787.82 crore from 10.62 million tonnes of iron ore, Rs448.73 crore from 7.97 million tonnes of cement, Rs381.91 crore from 4.72 million tonnes of fertilisers, Rs359.69 crore from 3.60 million tonnes of foodgrains, Rs292.17 crore from 3.38 million tonnes of petroleum oil and lubricant (POL), Rs299.80 crore from 2.78 million tonnes of pig iron and finished steel, Rs86.05 crore from 1.12 million tonnes of raw material for steel plants except iron ore, Rs256.83 crore from 2.97 million tonnes of container traffic and Rs363.86 crore from 5.83 million tonnes of other goods.