Road freight fell 9.2 per cent over the same period last year to 344 million tonnes and water freight slipped 3.7 per cent to 465 million tonnes.

Railway volume rose by 1.1 per cent to 1.192 billion tonnes and Freight turnover during the January-September period rose by eight per cent, to 2.21 trillion tonne-kilometres (one tonne-kilometre is a tonne of cargo transported one kilometre).

Freight turnover is an important indicator in monitoring labour productivity and economic efficiency.

Railways reported a 4.7 per cent rise to 968.02 billion tonne-kilometres, and road freight turnover fell by 5.5 per cent, to 19.794 billion tonne-kilometres.

Air freight turnover was 1.726 billion tonne-kilometres, up by 22.2 per cent, and water freight turnover rose by 11.1 per cent.

Passenger volume by rail, air, road and sea fell 0.2 per cent from the same period last year to 3.666 billion people in the January-September period, the report said, but air travel was the exception.

A volume breakdown shows that 796 million people travelled by rail, down 2.5 per cent, and 2.725 billion travelled by bus, up 0.6 per cent. About 108 million people travelled by boat, down 9.3 per cent, and 37.39 million people travelled by air, up 27.4 per cent.

Overall passenger turnover in the January-September period reported a 3.3 per cent rise over last year, to stand at 482.968 billion person-kilometres.

Passenger turnover by rail increased by 1.9 per cent to 282.3 billion person-kilometres, while bus travel turnover increased by 1.7 per cent.

Major coastal ports handled 544 million tonnes of cargo between January and September, 8.3 per cent more than the same period in 1994.