The Indian Railways posted a 44% increase in freight traffic so far this financial year to 252 million tonne (MT). Freight helped it fend off the blows from the pandemic as passenger traffic has slowed. The traffic for coal that has a share of around 47% in rail freight increased by 40% from April to June 8. Coal traffic was seen at 118 MT during the period compared with 84.5 MT a year ago. Other commodities that saw an increase include cement, minerals and containers. The rise in freight is no doubt due to the low base because of the lockdown last year. But sops lined up for customers and higher utilisation of tracks because of fewer number of passenger services were big contributors of the increase.