OREANDA-NEWS. August 22, 2011. The freight rolling stock fleet of Indian Railways has a variety of wagons with different carrying capacities.  These wagons are formed into rakes, composition of which may not be similar.  The average carrying capacity of each eight wheeler wagons on Indian Railways in the year 2009-10 was 60-61 tonnes.  The net earnings on working a goods train one kilometer is Rs. 568.06 during 2009-10.

Transportation demand for Railway freight is a derived demand and is dependent on the growth in the economy, especially in the core sectors.  The Railways interact with all their customers on a continuous basis and try to meet the demand for freight movement to the fullest extent possible.  The Indian Railways have set for themselves a stiff target for loading 993 million tonnes in the year 2011-12 with a record incremental freight traffic of 71.49 million tonnes and a growth of 7.76 per cent.

The originating freight loading on Indian Railways was 921.51 million tonnes in 2010-11 as compared to 887.99 million tonnes in 2009-10 registering a growth of 3.77 per cent.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Bharatsinh Solanki in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.