New Delhi, April 3: Indian Railways has recorded the best-ever performance in the freight segment in its recorded history during the just concluded financial year 2022-23.

As per the preliminary data by the Ministry of Railways, railways achieved a freight loading of 1,512 MT (million tonnes), an incremental loading of 94 MT over the previous best of 1,418 MT achieved in 2021-22.

Indian Railways has achieved an incremental loading of 74.6 MT in coal, followed by 8.7 MT in other goods, 5.6 in cement and clinkers, 7.1 MT in fertilizers, 5 MT in containers, and 4 MT in petroleum, oil and lubricants.

The efforts of Indian Railways to increase the supply of coal to powerhouses, in close coordination with the Ministry of Power and Coal, have been one of the key features of the freight performance in 2022-23, the railway ministry said in a release Sunday evening.

The loading of coal (both domestic and imported) to powerhouses increased by 84 MT in 2022-23 with 569 MT coal being moved to power houses as against 485 MT last year - a growth of 17.3 per cent.

"Along with excellent performance in transporting coal to the Powerhouses, increase in automobile loading has been another highlight of freight business in 2022-23 and 5,527 rakes have been loaded in FY 2022-23 as compared to 3,344 rakes last year i.e. a growth of 65 per cent," the ministry's release said.

Further, gross revenue from freight for railways is expected to be more than Rs 1.6 lakh crore with a growth rate of 14 per cent. Simultaneously, the passenger revenues are expected to exceed Rs 60,000 crore with a growth of more than 60 per cent.

This growth in the passenger business complemented by growth in the freight business has led for the first time for the combined freight and passenger revenue to cross the Rs 2 lakh crore mark.

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