Railways rushes more coal to power plants to meet peak summer demand

New Delhi: Indian Railways transported 9.3 per cent more coal in May this year compared to the same month last year to help the country’s power plants meet the peak demand for electricity in the scorching summer from power plants, official data shows.

Coal stocks at thermal power plants have been replenished in time, as logistics planning was undertaken in advance for the onset of the summer. The full commissioning of the eastern dedicated freight corridor, which connects the coal mines in Bihar with the power plants in the north has helped to expedite the movement of coal.

The freight volumes for all commodities on the railway network also went up by 3.9 per cent beating the slowdown expected due to the Lok Sabha polls, campaigning for which was in full swing during the month.

With this, the national transporter has clocked the 56th straight month of highest-ever freight loading, beginning October 2020.

Coal continued to remain the most carried commodity on the national transporter at 72.01 MT, followed by iron ore at 14.61 MT.

Sequentially, there was an 8.4 per cent increase at 139.16 million tonnes (mt) of freight loaded in May 2024 compared to 128.3 mt in April, a railway official confirmed.

Indian Railways earned a freight revenue of Rs 15,230.9 crore in May, up 8.2 per cent sequentially. In May 2023, the national transporter had earned Rs 14,641 crore, a 4 per cent increase in freight revenues.

There was also higher passenger movement on account of the ended Lok Sabha elections and the summer rush, for which the Railways is running 10,000 additional trains.