Title - Railways blame slowdown in economy to loss in freight loading

NEW DELHI: Railways today blamed the slowdown in economy to a loss of about eight million tons of frieght loading between July and September this year.

It said that approximately 7.8 MT of loading freight traffic was lost due to rakes lying idle during this period.

"As a result of less demand for freight during July-September 2012, rakes idled on the Indian railway system...it is estimated that approximately 7.8 MT of loading freight traffic on Indian railways was lost due to idling of capacity," Minister of State for Railways Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury told Lok Sabha in a written reply.

He said demand for freight loading on Indian railways is a derived demand and is dependent on the growth in the economy, especially in the core sector since railways is primarily a bulk carrier of freight.

He said the index of industrial production indices for April-September 2012 showed a growth of 3.2 per cent as compared to 5 per cent growth in April-September 2011.

As a result, he said over 208 rakes were lying idle in September alone, causing railways a loss of four MT of freight loading.

During August, 144 rakes went idle while during July about 44 rakes went idle.