Indian Railways Freight Loading Rises 6.14% in September 2026

The correct answer is 135.35 million tonnes. The Ministry of Railways reported that loading in September 2026 reached 135.35 million tonnes, which was 6.14 per cent higher than the same month a year earlier. Option A, 127.52 million tonnes, is the loading recorded in September 2025 and therefore serves as the base against which the growth was measured, not the current figure. Option C, 833.7 million tonnes, is the cumulative loading for the six months from April to September 2026, a half-year figure that grew 4.1 per cent over the corresponding period of the previous year, so it cannot be a single month's total. Option D is an invented figure that appears in no part of the report. Along with tonnage, freight earnings for the month were higher by 1,266 crore rupees than in September 2025, a growth of 9.3 per cent, while loading of food grain rose 25 per cent and clinker 20 per cent.

The correct answer is food grain, whose loading grew 25 per cent during September 2026, the steepest rise among the commodity groups listed by the Ministry of Railways. Option B, clinker, came second with growth of 20 per cent, so it is high but not the highest; clinker is the intermediate product used to make cement, and its movement tracks construction demand. Option A, coal, grew 9 per cent in the month, a modest rate in percentage terms even though coal remains the largest single commodity hauled by the railways by volume. Option D, iron ore, grew 5.2 per cent, the slowest of the groups named in the report, just below finished steel at 5.5 per cent and mineral oil at 6 per cent. Domestic container traffic grew 10 per cent and the balance other goods category 8.2 per cent, which shows growth spread across both bulk and containerised cargo.

The correct answer is 443 rakes. Indian Railways raised its domestic coal supply to power stations during September 2026, moving an average of 443 coal rakes every day. Option A, 397 rakes, is the daily average for September 2025 and so is the comparison figure rather than the current one; the move from 397 to 443 rakes a day works out to growth of 11.6 per cent. Option C, 116, is a distractor built from that growth rate of 11.6 per cent and is not a rake count at all. Option D, 480 rakes, does not appear anywhere in the report. Coal rake supply matters because thermal power stations depend on rail haulage for the bulk of their fuel, and stock building before the winter months is tracked closely. Overall loading for the month stood at 135.35 million tonnes, up 6.14 per cent, with coal loading itself growing 9 per cent.