Railways freight traffic will surpass last year despite Covid: Piyush Goyal

Freight movement through Railways will be higher than 2019-20 level despite the pandemic, Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal said, at the 74th Annual Session of Hindustan Chamber of Commerce today.

Stating that total freight movement in 2019-20 was about 1,200 million tonnes, Goyal asserted that by the end of March 2021, the Railways will exceed last year's level.

The minister noted that despite September being a lean month, for the first time during the past 10 years freight movement touched 100 million tonnes.

He said that the average speed of a freight train almost doubled to 50 km an