The Indian railways has transported 1617.38 million tonnes (MT) of freight in FY25, which is 1.68% up from the previous financial year when the national transporter carried 1590.68 MT of goods. This is significantly lower than the growth rate of 5.4% in the previous financial year. In FY23, the annual freight loading growth stood at 6.6%.
In a statement, the railways ministry said that the incremental loading of 26.7 MT was fuelled by the robust 19.72% growth in loading of domestic container. “Gunny sacks, hot rolled coils, ceramic tiles, wall care putty and rice are five major commodities in domestic container,” it said. Further, the loading for domestic coal registered growth of 7.4% whereas loading loading for fertilisers recorded growth of 1.25%.
With record-high coal transportation in FY25, the coal stock at power plants now stands at 57 MT, which is 21% higher than the last fiscal. Presently, the coal transportation accounts for over 51% of the total freight loading of railways.
In terms of zonal traffic, the eastern railway zone achieved growth the highest growth of 16.11% in FY25 followed by south east central railway achieving a growth of 7.28% and northeast frontier railway at 4.21%.
For FY26, the union budget has estimated freight loading of 1700 MT. To reduce the overall logistics costs, the government introduced Gati Shakti multi-modal cargo transport policy in 2021 followed by Mission 3000 MT by 2027 in 2022.
“For long distances and bulk goods, rail transport has been more economical than road transport. This helps reduce overall logistics costs for businesses, making Indian goods more competitive domestically and internationally. Moreover, railways link mines, factories, agricultural regions, and ports with markets across the country, enabling seamless supply chains,” the official statement said.