Indian Railways has recorded a 1.68% year-on-year growth in overall freight loading during the financial year 2024–25, reaching 1,617.38 million tonnes (MT) compared to 1,590.68 MT in FY24. This translates to an incremental increase of 26.70 MT across all commodities.
A key driver behind this growth was the remarkable 19.72% rise in domestic container loading. Additionally, domestic coal loading rose by 7.4%, contributing to an all-time high coal stock of 57 MT at power houses across the country. Fertilizer and petroleum oil & lubricants (POL) loading also saw modest gains of 1.25% and 0.61% respectively.
The major commodities transported in domestic containers included gunny sacks, hot rolled coils, ceramic tiles, wall care putty, and rice.
Among zonal railways, Eastern Railway led the performance charts with a freight loading growth of 16.11%, followed by South East Central Railway at 7.28% and Northeast Frontier Railway at 4.21%.
This performance underscores Indian Railways’ growing contribution to India’s logistics ecosystem, ensuring cost-effective bulk transportation for key industries and power generation sectors.
