The Ranipettai railway station, constructed in 1858 – one of the Indian Railways’ oldest on the network, is set to become a developing hub for freight traffic, according to the Southern railway zone. After a gap of 25 years, the station which was suspended due to operational reasons in 1995, became functional for freight movement on January 20, 2021. The station – now a goods terminal for Ranipettai in Tamil Nadu, comes under the administration of the Chennai division of the Southern railway zone.

• The first loading transported 1,300 tonnes of fertilizers to Tadepalligudam and Dwarapudi in Andhra Pradesh as a two-point rake, which fetched a revenue of Rs.15.32 lakhs for the railway authorities, according to the Chennai division of Southern railways.
• The second rake was operated to Siliyari, in Chattisgarh on March 3, 2021, which carried 1,326 tonnes of fertilizers, fetching a sum of ₹ 25.88 lakhs as revenue for Indian Railways.
• The third rake transported 1,329 tonnes of fertilizers to Tadepalligudam and Eluru in Andhra Pradesh as a two point rake on March 16, 2021, which fetched a revenue of Rs.13.72 lakhs for the railway authorities.
• For the current financial year 2021-2022, the first loading of goods from the Ranipettai station started on June 15, 2021. It was operated as a two-point rake from Ranipettai, where 11 wagons were loaded to Tadepalligudam (701 tonnes) and 10 wagons to the Krishna Canal junction (637 tonnes) in Andhra Pradesh.
• This resulted in transporting a total of 1338 tonnes of chemical manure or single super phosphate for M/s Coromandel International Limited, Ranipettai. This generated a revenue of ₹ 11,69,790, according to Southern railways.

The next rake is likely to be operated on June 23, 2021, from Ranipettai to Andhra Pradesh. Meanwhile, Indian Railways’ total freight loading in fiscal 2021 stood at 203.88 million tonnes, compared to 184.88 million tonnes in the financial year 2020, marking a 10 per cent growth year-on-year.