Railway freight earnings dip by Rs 8,283 crore during coronavirus lockdown: Data

The national transporter saw a slight dip in its loading of fertilisers -- from 7.3 MT in 2019 to 6.56 MT this year; the revenue dipped from Rs 709 crore to Rs 289 crore.

June 03, 2020 / 10:23 PM IST

Representative Image

Railways freight earnings dropped by Rs 8,283 crore during the lockdown months of April and May as compared to the same period last year, the data showed on Wednesday, indicating a slow year ahead for the national transporter amidst the gloom of the coronavirus crisis. While it almost doubled its foodgrain loading from 5.7MT between April 1 and May 31 last year to 11.09 MT this year, registering a Rs 607 crore increase from last year's earnings, it suffered a setback in revenue generation from all other products it carried.

Its earnings from coal loading fell from Rs 11,033 crore in 2019 to Rs 5,720 crore in 2020. Revenue generation from transporting mineral oil fell to Rs 761 crore this year from Rs 979 crore last year, the data showed.

It also suffered a dip in transportation of iron ores and its earnings from the product reduced by Rs 484 crore between April 1 and May 31 this year.

The national transporter saw a slight dip in its loading of fertilisers -- from 7.3 MT in 2019 to 6.56 MT this year; the revenue dipped from Rs 709 crore to Rs 289 crore.

Overall, during the two months, the Railways loaded 147.69 MT of goods while earning Rs 13,412.09 crore. During the same period last year, it loaded 205.81 MT of goods earning a revenue of Rs 21,695.61 crore.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

Show