Secunderabad, Jul 3 (IANS): The South Central Railway (SCR) zone on Saturday said it recorded the best freight loading figures of 28.6 metric tonne (MT) in the first quarter (Q1) of 2021-22 valued at Rs 2,478 crore.

According to the Railways, this freight performance is almost on par with pre-Covid times and even surpassed the 27.5 MT target set by the Railway Board for the April-June quarter.

SCR logged a 55 per cent improvement in freight loading compared to the 2020 quarter which saw freight loading at 18.4 MT.

In terms of revenue, the railway zone witnessed a 58 per cent improvement.

"Inspite of the impact of second wave of Covid-19 infection, the zone continues to show positive momentum in freight loading due to the relentless effort of SCR team," said a railway official.

Incidentally, traditional coal loading has picked up and returned to normalcy, as evident with coal loading touching 14.3 MT during April-June 2021, which is 83 per cent higher than the corresponding quarter of 2020.

Likewise container loading rose by 88 per cent at 0.49 MT and cement loading by 73 per cent at 7.8 MT in Q1.

"The zone has given special emphasis on availability of wagons so that supply is sharply met on par with demand. This is clearly visible in the increase of average wagons supplied in a day," he said.

On an average, 4,830 wagons are being supplied in a day, rising from an average of 3,175 wagons in the last fiscal.

The railway zone has also accorded due importance to freight trains and monitored them at all levels, including maintaining an average speed between 47 to 50 km per hour.