Railways freight traffic showed a growth of 10.88 per cent from 61.05 million tonnes in April 2007 to 67.69 million tonnes in April 2008.
Out of the total freight earnings, coal continued to remain the major source of revenue generation for the Indian railways with 28.82 million tonnes of coal getting transported generating Rs 1560.46 crore as freight earnings.
This is followed by a freight earnings of Rs 965.54 crore, which came from the transportation of iron ore for exports, steel plants and for other domestic user, Rs 377.33 crore from 7.04 million tonnes of cement and Rs 295.08 crore from 3.12 million tonnes of food grains among others.
