In a notable achievement, Indian Railways has surpassed its previous freight business record by reaching 1,500 million tonnes (MT), as indicated by preliminary data released on March 15. The earlier best stood at 1,512 MT during FY 22-23.
As of FY 2023-24, Indian Railways has witnessed a significant increase in total revenue, which now stands at Rs 2.40 lakh crores compared to Rs 2.23 lakh crores recorded on the same date last year. This surge in revenue reflects a notable rise of Rs 17,000 crores in freight business. However, the total expenditure for Indian Railways in FY 2023-24 is reported to be Rs 2.26 lakh crores, as stated by the Railways Ministry.
This achievement sets Indian Railways on track to achieve its best-ever performance across various key metrics, including total revenue and track laying in FY 23-24.
Notably, there were 648 crore passengers traveling on Indian Railways during FY 2023-24, marking an increase of 52 crores compared to the previous year’s figure of 596 crores.
Regarding infrastructure development, Indian Railways has laid an impressive 5,100 kilometers of new tracks in FY 2023-24. Moreover, the average daily track laying rate for this fiscal year exceeds 14 kilometers per day.
In the realm of freight transportation, between April 2023 and February 2024, Indian Railways accomplished a cumulative freight loading of 1434.01 million metric tons (MT), surpassing last year’s loading of 1367.5 MT by approximately 66.51 MT.
This improvement over the corresponding period of the previous year is noteworthy. Additionally, Railways recorded earnings of Rs. 1,55,557.1 crore during this period, marking an increase of approximately Rs. 6,468.17 crore compared to the same period last year.
In February 2024, freight loading surged to 136.60 million tonnes (MT), a notable increase from the 124.03 MT recorded in February 2023, indicating an improvement of approximately 10.13%.