As the nation continued its fight against COVID, NCR has strived hard to keep up the momentum of its business. At the end of August, NCR registers 23.01% growth in its originating freight loading in the period April to August as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. Monetizing the figures in revenue terms, a growth of 15.7% has been registered in the same period.

NCR loaded a total of 7.24 million tonnes during the period April to August this year against a loading of 5.88 million tonnes during corresponding period of last year. Revenue earned out of this outward loading during this period comes out to be Rs. 723.74 crores.

In addition to above, a particular benchmark has been set by NCR by registering best ever loading for the month of August. In August 2021, 1.45 million tonnes of freight was loaded, which is the best figure for the month of August. Previous best for the month of August was 1.28 million tonnes, which were loaded in August 2018-19. This is especially significant as August month usually shows a dip owing to monsoons. Total revenue earned by NCR in the month of August 2021 itself is 144.74 crores (approx).

During a meeting of senior officers on Wednesday, chaired by General Manager Pramod Kumar, above details were shared by the Principal Chief Operations Manager (PCOM) Biplav Kumar.

Biplav Kumar lauded the efforts of Business Development Units of headquarter and the divisions for their proactive roles in attracting new traffic for NCR. Sharing the information, the PCOM informed that among the major commodities which showed an upward trend were cement, foodgrains and Petroleum oil lubricants. Container traffic too showed a 26% growth in loading as 1.08 million tonnes of cargo was loaded during April to August this year as compared to 0.86 mt of container traffic last year.

In its pursuit to attract more and more loading, following marketing strategy has already been adopted by NCR.

• Business Development Unit (BDU) has been set up both at NCR HQ and in all the three divisions viz. Prayagraj, Jhansi and Agra for increasing rail share in traditional commodities and for  effective interaction with existing and new potential freight customers to sort various issues regarding difficulties faced by customers and thereby taking corrective actions to facilitate customers to enhance freight loading.
• Continuous meetings with new potentials customers are being organized regularly to cope up with constraints and various issues regarding loading and unloading. Virtual meetings were also organized regularly especially the customers having potential like additional food grain, flyash, sand, Automobile, Container & ballast etc. BDU has initiated for up gradation of terminals which has attracted loading.
• Freight Business Development Portal (FBDP): This has been designed and developed with customer first philosophy and help in familiarizing the new freight customers.
• Awareness generation regarding concessional schemes for freight customers is being carried out to explore new markets.

Speaking on the achievement, General Manager Shri Pramod Kumar congratulated the BDUs and all the officers and their team members. GM however expressed his concern over slight dip in loading in August as compared to the loading in last couple of months of current financial year itself and urged that all necessary steps should be taken to step up the loading further. “Achievements are laudable, but we have to work harder to scale new heights”, said the GM. “All undergoing siding works and other infrastructure related works should be closely monitored to eliminate existing bottlenecks and to expand our abilities” added Shri Kumar.