15 Facts About Freight Transport of Indian Railways

Freight Train transport in India runs more than 9,200 trains daily generating revenue and 501 billion INR per year. IR consist of 277,987 freight wagons with wagon numbering system allocated 11 digits and both diesel and electric locomotive are used by freight.

• Indian Railways runs more than 9,200 trains daily and carried 1,110 million tonnes of freight in fiscal year.
• Indian Railways Freight trains with 1.5 km length, 3660 mm width and 7.1 m height clearance are only in the world.
• Freight segment of Indian Railways rolling stock consisted of 277,987 freight wagons.
• Average speed of freight trains in India is around 24 km/per hour.
• Broad gauge railway line used for freight and generate 100% of the freight output.
• Indian Locomotive Class WAG-9 is currently and operating most powerful freight locomotive of Indian Railways.
• WAG-12 is the new electric freight locomotive of Indian Railways with a power output of 12,000 hp.
• Freight transport service of IR is responsible for commodities to reach across the length and breadth of India.
• International freight services link exist between Raxaul of Bihar and Birganj in Nepal.
• New dedicated freight corridors in India are expected to be completed by 2020.
• Vembanad Rail Bridge is the longest rail bridge in India with length of 4.62 km and dedicated for only freight transport.
• Golden Quadrilateral Freight Corridors carry 55% of the India Railway’s freight traffic.
• IR Double-stack standard shaped containers transported with 400 container capacity only in the world.
• Indian freight service house 800 electric locomotives with 12,000 HP that is biggest in the world.
• Konkan railway is the only railway zone in India that supports RoRo services along with few of the more innovations like Sky Bus and anti collision devices.

Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India run by the Ministry of Railways and responsible for construction, maintenance and operation of Dedicated Freight Corridors in India. After the completion of DFC along with golden quadrilateral freight corridor, Freight trains will run 100 km/h with most advanced techniques and also with renewable energy.