Indian Railways achieves many milestones in 2021-22

Indian Railways (IR) has achieved milestones in various categories during 2021-22. These include freight loading, electrification, new line/doubling/ gauge conversion, locomotive production and integration of technology for ensuring safety. It has successfully loaded freight goods to the tune of 1,418.10 mt during 2021-22, 15 per cent higher than the loading in the corresponding period in the previous year (1,233.24 mt). This is the highest ever loading by the national transporter in a financial year. The freight loading target for 2022-23 stands at 1,475 mt. Further, it has achieved highest ever monthly loadings in consecutive 19 months from September 2020 to March 2022. It has also achieved record electrification of 6,366 rkm during 2021-22. As of March 31, 2022, out of 65,141 rkm of the broad gauge network of IR (including Konkan Railway), 52,247 rkm has been electrified, which constitutes 80.2 per cent of the total broad-gauge network. In new line/doubling/gauge conversion, 2,904 km was achieved ag­ainst the target of 2,400 km in 2021-22 and 2,361 km in 2020-21. It is 23 per cent higher as compared to last year. In monetary terms, IR generated gross freight revenue of around Rs 1,437.32 billion during 2021-22. Mean­while, the freight revenue earned during 2020-21 stood at Rs 1,241.84 billion. Earlier, the highest freight revenue earnings were registered at Rs 1,274.3 billion during 2018-19. The freight earnings target for fiscal 2022-23 stands at Rs 1,650 billion.