Vijayawada Railway Division surpasses 2022-23 fiscal's freight loading

Vijayawada, Feb 29 (PTI) The South Central Railway (SCR) Zone's Vijayawada Division has surpassed its previous fiscal's (2022-23) freight loading of 33.54 million tonne and is poised to clock its highest freight earnings in financial year 2023-24, said an official on Thursday.

Vijayawada Division crossed the mark on February 27 itself, 33 days before the end of fiscal 2023-24, logging freight revenues of Rs 3,675 crore while it recorded a total freight revenue of Rs 3,912 crore in the previous fiscal.

"It was anticipated that Vijayawada Division will surpass the highest ever freight earnings of Rs 3,968 crore recorded during 2018-19. With monthly average freight earnings of Rs 340 crore and a strong loading trend, the Division is poised to surpass the Rs 4,000 crore mark in freight earnings," said the official in a press release.

Further, the railway division is also on track to achieve the landmark of registering Rs 5,000 crore earnings consecutively for the first time in its history. Increased wagon turnaround, proper coordination, shorter lead traffic, rise in the number of rakes dealt at each and every location and proper coordination among all departments have enabled these achievements.

The Adani Krishnapatnam Port continues to be the highest freight revenue-earning source for the division, followed by Kakinada Sea Port, while coal remains to be the top transported commodity.

In the current fiscal, 18 MT of coal and 6.4 MT of fertilizers have been transported, emerging as the dominant commodities to have been dispatched through Vijayawada Division.

Further, newer commodities such as timber waste and laterite loading have also gained momentum, facilitated by economical pricing and effective rake capacity to carry higher volumes of freight when compared to road traffic.

Meanwhile, the railway division is focused on modernising its goods sheds at multiple locations, improving amenities for freight customers and the development of a world-class goods shed terminal at Kakinada. PTI STH KH