Title - Central railway registers 25 per cent growth in freight earnings in April-May 2012-13

MUMBAI: Central Railway (CR) has registered a 25 per cent growth in freight earnings during April-May 2011-13 compared to corresponding period in the previous year. Officials have attributed this demand to increase in demand for imported coal, cement and container loading.During April-May 2012-11, CR earned revenue worth Rs 1470 crore from freight earnings as compared to Rs 1175 crore during the same period last year. The official said, "The 25 per cent growth in revenue is also because of increased in demand of coal and operation of two Private Freight Terminals (PFT). During April-May 2012-13, 10.15 million tonnes of freight was loaded as against 8.9 million tonnes last year in the same duration - a increase of 13 per cent."The official said, "The loading of coal has increased to 4.12 MT as compared to 4.6 MT in April-May 2011-12. There has been surge in demand for imported coal for blending with domestic coal. Due to dispute with Western Coal Field and Mahagenco over the quality of washed coal, the latter has decided to rely more on imported coal to fire its plants."The increase in construction activity in infrastructure projects and real-estate across the country has also aided the growth in loading of cement from 1.10 MT to 1.36 MT in April-May 2012-13. Likewise fertilizers also witnessed a growth from 0.37 M T in April-May 2011-12 to o.44 MT in corresponding period this year. The container loading also witnessed a decent growth from 1.81 MT in April-May 2011-12 to 2.09 MT this year during the same period. Even petroleum products saw of growth of 0.07 MT in April-May 2012-13.