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Road Freight Passenger Movement
Rail and Roads combined carry nearly 90% of total freight traffic in the country
Within the two, The Rail : Road mix in India`s freight transport has got dramatically skewed towards Road in the last several decades, as Railways have consistently lost out to roads. Share of railways in total inter-regional freight traffic has come down from 89% in 1951 to about 25% today. For passenger traffic as well, share of Rail has fallen from 68% in 1951 to just about 10% today
Despite higher costs, road has increasingly become preferred mode of transport because of easy accessibility, flexibility of operations, ability to offer door-to-door service and reliability
The availability of data on passenger traffic and freight traffic movement by roads poses a challenge as there is no easy availability of data for this segment unlike for the Airways and Railways, which are better organized. The data release also takes longer time. For example, Road Transport Yearbook 2020-21 and 2021-22 was published by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) on 28th January 2025
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For 2021-22, Road freight was estimated at 3,031.6 billion ton-km (BTKM), and the Road passenger traffic was estimated at 26,299 billion passenger-km (BPKM)
For the year 2021-22, the growth rate used was 9.1%. We would like readers to note the growth rate used for 2020-21, the COVID year, that of -5.8%
| Year | Freight BTKM | Passengers BPKM | GDP Growth Rate Used |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | 3031.6 | 26299.0 | 9.1 |
| 2020-21 | 2689.3 | 22422.0 | -5.8 |
| 2019-20 | 2927.3 | 25199.0 | 6.1 |
| 2018-19 | 2697.0 | 22582.0 | 6.1 |
| 2017-18 | 2484.8 | 20237.0 | 7.0 |
| 2016-17 | 2263.0 | 17861.0 | 8.3 |
| 2015-16 | 2027.4 | 15428.0 | 8.0 |
| 2014-15 | 1823.2 | 13393.0 | 7.4 |
| 2013-14 | 1652.1 | 11742.0 | 6.4 |
| 2012-13 | 1516.2 | 10469.0 | 5.5 |
| 2011-12 | 1407.8 | 9478.0 | 6.7 |
| 2010-11 | 1287.3 | 8409.0 | 8.9 |
| 2009-10 | 1144.5 | 7192.0 | 8.6 |
| 2008-09 | 1021.6 | 6182.0 | 6.7 |
| 2007-08 | 933.7 | 5482.0 | 9.3 |
| 2006-07 | 825.9 | 4657.0 | 9.6 |
| 2005-06 | 728.3 | 4252.0 | 9.5 |
| 2004-05 | 643.0 | 3469.0 | 7.1 |
| 2003-04 | 595.0 | 3070.0 | 8.0 |
| 2002-03 | 545.0 | 2815.0 | 3.9 |
| 2001-02 | 515.0 | 2413.0 | 5.4 |
| 2000-01 | 494.0 | 2076.0 | 4.1 |
| 1999-00 | 467.0 | 1832.0 | 8.0 |
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If we scroll down the above Table, for the year 1999-00, the road freight was estimated at 467 BTKM. Thus the road freight has been estimated to have grown 6.5 times between 1999-00 to 2021-22
The road passenger traffic for 1999-00 was estimated at 1,832 BPKM. Thus the road passenger traffic has been estimated to have grown 14.4 times between 1999-00 to 2021-22