Indian Railways' freight traffic recovers after five months of decline

Railways freight traffic during July-August 2020 was 94.9 million tonnes compared to 95.4 million tonnes in the same period last year.

Coal and iron ore are used in production of steel. Coal transported to steel plants is slowly recovering from 37.2 per cent fall in April 2020. The fall was restricted to 5.1 per cent in August 2020.

Movement of coal for thermal power plants on Indian Railways has been inching up slowly in line with an increase in thermal power generation. During July-August 2020, it averaged at 15.7 million tonnes per month.

Fertilisers industry was one of the least affected during the lockdown. Traffic of fertilisers recorded 14.8 per cent YoY growth in July 2020. During August, fertilisers' traffic rose to 29 per cent.

Food grain movement reached an all-time high surpassing its earlier spike in April 2020. The average monthly food grains transported over Indian Railways during 2019-20 was 3.1 million tonnes.