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ShareMumbai: The impact of global slowdown was seen in the yearly freight loading targets set for this fiscal. Terming the Interim Budget freight targets as unrealistically high and unsustainable, railways minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said they needed a mid-course correction. The minister reduced the target for FY10 to 882 million tonnes (mt), or a 5% growth, from the 910 mt set in the Interim Budget.
This is an incremental load of 47 mt over 2008-09.
Experts believe as the railways is linked to the economy, the targets set are achievable.
The drop in export-import cargo due to the slowdown saw railways freight loading fall short of target.
However, the railway minister is confident of meeting targets this fiscal.This is based on the special steps being taken by the government to give an economic stimulus as a counter-recession measure.
Banerjee, in her speech, spoke of railways making special efforts to attract more bulk traffic and new traffic streams. Efforts are underway to increase railways' share in new traffic streams such as automobiles, fly ash, etc, besides improving the loading of coal, iron ore, cement, fertilisers and food grains. Efforts are also on to capture long lead traffic. Industry experts believe long lead traffic generates better revenue streams for railways.
