Railways cross 1-billion-tonne freight mark with coal still the king, cement push signals next phase

Freight loading is up year-on-year and daily runs are stronger, with policy tweaks aimed at making bulk cement movement cheaper and faster.

Indian Railways has hit a milestone: freight loading this fiscal has already crossed the 1-billion-tonne mark. As of November 19, cumulative loading stood at 1,020 million tonnes, the Railway Ministry said on Saturday.

The big picture: freight is the economy’s pulse

When freight volumes rise, factories are producing, power plants are burning fuel, construction sites are hungry for materials, and ports are moving goods. The ministry’s data shows that pulse is steady and strengthening this year.

Daily loading is holding around 4.4 million tonnes versus 4.2 million tonnes in the same period last year.

What’s moving? Coal still dominates the rake

The sectoral break-up makes the story clearer, and a bit more complicated.

Coal: 505 MT, still the backbone of rail freight and India’s power economy.
Iron ore: 115 MT
Cement: 92 MT
Container traffic: 59 MT
Pig iron & finished steel: 47 MT
Fertilisers: 42 MT
Mineral oil: 32 MT
Foodgrains: 30 MT
Raw material for steel plants: ~20 MT
Other goods: 74 MT

Coal alone accounts for roughly half of total loading.

Year-on-year growth: steady, not flashy

Between April and October, Railways carried 935.1 MT, up from 906.9 MT last year for the same period. The rise is broad-based and comes in a year when multiple sectors have been dealing with price volatility, patchy global demand, and uneven monsoons.

The fresh peg: cement reforms hint at where the next freight battle is

The ministry used the milestone to spotlight something more strategic: cement logistics.

Cement is the physical signature of India’s capex cycle, highways, housing, metros, and industrial corridors. The Railways has rolled out a Policy for Bulk Cement Terminals and rationalised rates for moving bulk cement in containers. Basically, the government wants more cement to move by rail, in larger lots, at lower cost, with less time wasted at terminals.

If this works, it could change the freight mix over time: shifting rail’s dependence away from coal toward construction-linked cargo, a healthier long-term story for both Railways and India’s decarbonisation narrative.

For the Railways, more bulk cargo by rail is a revenue play and a capacity play. For the economy, it’s a logistics play.

Shifting big-ticket goods to rail reduces highway congestion, cuts emissions, and lowers per-tonne transport costs. That matters for MSMEs too: cheaper, predictable logistics can be a quiet competitiveness boost in sectors where margins are thin.