Born just nine years ago, the South East Central Railway with its headquarters in Chhattisgarh has created a niche for itself by recording highest freight loading over the years.

Since inception in 2003, the SECR’s freight loading had increased by more than 50%. The rich mineral endowed to the state where the SECR has its headquarters in Bilaspur is one of the reasons for the spectacular performance of the new railway zone.

Mr Santosh Kumar a senior SECR official, told Business Standard that “The SECR is now also known as Blue Chip of Indian Railway (IR) while the zone has recorded highest loading among the 17 zones of the IR.”

He added that in all, 110 rakes that account to 5600 wagons are loaded every day in the zone.

In the financial year 2004-2005, the SECR freight loading was recorded at 92.49 million tonnes. It increased to 140.62 million tonnes in the financial year 2010-11 registering a growth of more than 50%.

The SECR had set a target of 153.50 million tonnes in the current fiscal 2011-12 while till November 2011, it had achieved 96.91 million tonnes.

Coal remains the backbone of SECR loading and contributes about 74 per cent of the total loading. South Eastern Coalfields Limited which is the largest coal producing company in the country, has major mining operations in Chhattisgarh and in the areas that comes under the territory of the SECR.

The SECL has 92 Mines. Of which, 70 are under ground mines while 21 are open cast mines besides one mixed mine.

(Sourced from BS)