Lok Sabha Question No. 5344 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2026-03-25
Subject: Railway Freight Services
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Shri Sribharat Mathukumilli

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 5344 TO BE ANSWERED ON 25.03.2026

## RAILWAY FREIGHT SERVICES

## 5344. SHRI SRIBHARAT MATHUKUMILLI:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a)  whether  the  Government  has  assessed  that  existing  freight  tariffs, booking rules, service rigidity and reliability issues of Railways affect the last mile connectivity cost, predictability and competitiveness for shippers, transporters and MSMEs and if so, the details thereof;
- (b)  whether  these  factors  has  led  to  a  growing  preference  for  road transport despite higher costs, thereby increasing logistics burdens on businesses and if so, the details thereof;
- (c)  the  steps  taken/being  taken  by  the  Government  to  make  rail  cargo more  shipper-friendly  including  tariff  rationalisation,  small-lot  and single-wagon  services,  time-tabled  freight  operations  and  use  of parcel vans for general cargo;
- (d)  whether  any  performance  benchmarks/service-level  assurances  are proposed for freight customers and if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the impact of these measures expected on logistics costs, modal shift
- and ease of doing business?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND

## ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

- (a) to (e) Railways are environment friendly, cost competitive and energyefficient  mode  of  transportation,  yielding  substantially  lower  CO2 emissions  in  transportation  as  compared  to  transportation  by  road. The difference in CO2 emissions between Rail and Road is as under:

§

Ref: - NITI Aayog Report titled 'Fast Tracking Freight in India, June 2021'

| Mode of transportation   | CO2 emission per tonne per Km   |
|--------------------------|---------------------------------|
| Road                     | 101 gm                          |
| Rail                     | 11.5 gm (about 89% less)        |

Shifting of one million metric tonne (MMT) of cargo from road to rail reduces the carbon emission by about 5.37 Crore Kg. During the period from  2014  to  2025,  about  562  MMT  freight  has  shifted  to  Railways which  corresponds  to  reduction  in  carbon  emission  amounting  to about 3,018 crore kg.

Further, Railway is also cost efficient mode of transportation with an average  cost  of  ₹1.96  per  tonne  per  kilometer  which  is  significantly lower than road where the logistics cost is around ₹3.78 per tonne per kilometer. (Ref: NCAER report titled 'Assessment of Logistics Cost in India, September 2025' instituted by DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industries)

Indian Railway has taken several measures during the last few years to enhance bulk and non-bulk cargo loading and revenue. Freight loading since 2014 is as below:

| Year    | Freight loading (in Million Tonnes)   |
|---------|---------------------------------------|
| 2014-15 | 1,098                                 |
| 2015-16 | 1,104                                 |
| 2016-17 | 1,109                                 |
| 2017-18 | 1,162                                 |
| 2018-19 | 1,223                                 |
| 2019-20 | 1,210                                 |
| 2020-21 | 1,233                                 |
| 2021-22 | 1,418                                 |
| 2022-23 | 1,512                                 |
| 2023-24 | 1,591                                 |
| 2024-25 | 1,617                                 |

<!-- image -->

The freight loading has increased to 1,617 MT in 2024-25, thus making Indian  Railways  the  second  largest  freight  carrying  Railways  in  the world.

To increase rail traffic following measures have been taken:

-  Capacity augmentation, removing bottlenecks in operations by yard remodeling,  construction  of  bypass/chord  lines,  rail  flyovers  etc., have  been  taken  up  in  a  big  way  during  the  last  11  years.  The details of new tracks laid are as under:

| Period   | New track commissioned   |
|----------|--------------------------|
| 2009-14  | 7,599 Km                 |
| 2014-25  | 34,428 Km                |

Further  as  on  01.04.25,  there  are  431  (154  New  Line,  33  Gauge Conversion and 244 Doubling) projects sanctioned. The summary of which is as under:-

| Category                  |   No. of Projects | Total length (Km)   | Length completed till Mar'25 (Km)   | Balance length (Km)   | Cost (Cr.)   |
|---------------------------|-------------------|---------------------|-------------------------------------|-----------------------|--------------|
| New lines                 |               154 | 16,142              | 3,036                               | 13,105                | 3,77,389     |
| Gauge conversion          |                33 | 4,180               | 2,997                               | 1,183                 | 43,820       |
| Doubling / Multi tracking |               244 | 15,644              | 6,736                               | 8,909                 | 2,53,711     |
| Total                     |               431 | 35,966              | 12,769                              | 23,197                | 6,74,920     |

-  Further,  the  construction  of  Eastern  Dedicated  Freight  Corridor (EDFC) from Ludhiana to Sonnagar (1337 Km) and Western Dedicated  Freight  Corridor  (WDFC)  from  Jawaharlal  Nehru  Port Terminal (JNPT) to Dadri (1506 Km) has been taken up. Out of total 2843  kms,  2741  route  kms  (96.4%)  has  been  commissioned  and operational which would provide higher freight speed, reduce cargo transit time and improve predictability of cargo delivery.
-  Indian  Railways  has  taken  up  electrification  of  Railway  lines  in  a mission  mode.  So  far,  about  99.4%  of  Broad  Gauge  (BG)  network has  been  electrified.  A  comparison  of  electrification  before  and after 2014 is as follows:
-  To increase freight carrying capacity, large numbers of IR wagons have  been  procured  and  locomotives  have  been  manufactured. During 2014 to 2025, about 2 lakh wagons have been procured and more  than  10,000  locomotives  have  been  added  for  increasing freight loading and mobility.
-  To improve the efficiency of rail freight handling at the terminals, Indian  Railway  has  adopted  two-pronged  approach:  encouraging development  of  modern  rail  freight  terminals  under  Gati  Shakti Multi-Modal Cargo Terminal (GCT) policy and augmenting/ upgrading the infrastructure at Railway owned goods sheds. So far, 128 GCTs have  already  been  commissioned.  In  addition,  for  improvement  of customer  amenities  at  goods  and  parcel  terminals  all  across  the country,  an  amount  of  ₹14,500  crore  has  been  allocated  for  the financial year 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26.
-  In addition, Indian Railway has taken various steps to promote the improvement  of  freight  segment  through  freight  rationalization, adoption of various freight incentive schemes for transportation of

| Period                | Route Kilometre   |
|-----------------------|-------------------|
| Before 2014           | 21,801            |
| 2014-26 (upto Feb 26) | 47,966            |

bulk and small cargo & various concession and services. Some of them are as under:

-  A  'Bulk  Cement  Terminal  Policy'  for  setting  up  terminals  on Railway  land  has  been  launched  recently  as  part  of  Railway reforms for facilitating Bulk Cement transportation.
-  Introduction  of  Gross  Tonne  Kilometer  based  haulage  rate  for Bulk Cement in Tank Containers,
-  Cargo  Aggregator  Transportation  Product  to promote  FastMoving  Consumer  Goods  (FMCG),  White  Goods,  Electronics, Automotive Components, etc.,
-  Liberalised  Automatic  Freight  Rebate  Scheme  in  Traditional Empty Flow Directions,
-  Concession on Short lead traffic,
-  Discount in freight to Fly Ash /Bed Ash traffic booked in Open/flat Stock & covered wagons,
- 
- Rationalisation of Haulage rate of Automobile traffic,
-  Promotion of Bamboo  Traffic in North Eastern Region by granting exemption from levy of Busy Season Charge (BSC).
-  To enhance the capacity of the automobile stock, various new wagons  have  been  introduced  such  as  ACT  1,  ACT  2,  ACT  3, NMGHS, etc.
- Discount on empty haulage of containers transporting Chemical
-  Gypsum and Tiles traffic,
-  Classification of new commodities such as Potassium Sulphate, Ammonium  Bicarbonate Food Grade, RUF Pitch, Liquefied Isobutylene, Liquefied Ethane, Shea nuts, etc.
-  The  Joint  Parcel  Product  (JPP)  initiative  with  India  Post  was introduced  on  pilot  basis  in  2022  over  certain  routes  to  target business-to-customer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) market with  focus  on  e-Commerce  and  MSME  market  with  an  affordable price as per the market trends of weight category between 35 Kgs to 100 Kgs. Under the scheme India Post provides First & Last Mile services, and Indian Railways provides the middle mile services.

-  Further,  Indian  Railways  has  a  dedicated  system  for,  carrying parcels  across  the  country  in  Parcel  Vans  (in  addition  to  the Brakevans)  by  attaching  the  same  to  the  scheduled  Passengercarrying  trains  in  the  form  of  leased/  non-leased  services.  In addition, full Parcel trains comprising of Parcel Vans also run in the form  of  leased  and  non-leased  services.  These  Parcel  Vans  are used for transportation of various types of goods, including e-commerce items, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), perishables, general merchandise, industrial raw materials, machinery, consumer goods, and more.
-  Business Development units are functional at all Railway Divisions for  engagement  and  co-ordination  with  various  stakeholders  to assess  the  traffic  potential  as  well  as  and  readiness  of  logistics
- service provider for the first and last mile services.
-  To  enhance  ease  of  doing  business  and  efficiency  in  operations, Indian Railways is leveraging advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things  (IoT),  and  Automation  to enhance  freight  operations  and  reduce  wagon  turnaround  times, Key  innovations  include  Freight  Maintenance  Management  (FMM), Real-Time Train Information System (RTIS), Control Chart Automation,  Control Office Application (COA), Railways,  Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), and integration of train timing data via  RTIS/  Remmlot  systems  and  Data  Loggers.  The  integration  of FMM and COA with IoT devices has been successfully implemented to improve operational efficiency.

These  measures  are  expected  to  improve  the  efficiency  and attractiveness  of  rail  freight,  encourage  modal  shift  from  road  to rail,  reduce  overall  logistics  costs,  and  enhance  ease  of  doing business in the country.

*****