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October 11, 2008


East Coast Railway uncertain of 2008-09 targets

BL reported that East Coast Railway is in a dilemma as railway board would like it to handle more than 100 million tonnes of originating freight traffic in 2008-09 as compared to 93.19 million tonnes in 2007-08.

As per report, East Coast Railway is not sure if such a big jump in throughput is achievable at all. The throughput in the current fiscal could be up at the best by an additional 5 million tonnes to reach 98 million tonnes or so.

East Coast Railway is reported to be concerned about the volume of traffic on following major grounds

1. The commissioning of Gangavaram port will take away coal and limestone traffic currently imported by Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited through Visakhapatnam port and transported by the division. From Gangavaram, the import of these items will be transported by the conveyor system to RINL’s plant.

2. The critical law and order situation along the 450 kilometer long Kottavalasa Kirandul line. The transportation of iron ore on the route remained totally suspended several times last year, largely due to the Maoist problem. Right now, about 11 to 12 rakes are being moved a day against the normal 16 to 17 rakes.

3. In 2007-08, East Coast Railway suffered setbacks on several other fronts also. For example, the Maharashtra State Electricity Board has stopped importing power grade coal through the Visakhapatnam port for its Khaparkheda unit. It used to load about 20 rakes a month on an average for that unit. It is has now come to a halt.

4. Also in March 2008, there was virtually no loading of fertilizer, either imported or domestic, against the normal 8 to 9 rakes a day. There was hardly any import and the domestic loading was affected because the production at two major Paradip based fertilizer plants was hit by the skyrocketing of rock phosphate prices in the world market.

Fortunately for East Cost Railway, last year the loading of coal, the single largest item of traffic, particularly at Talcher mines, was satisfactory despite a couple of hold ups, the daily loading at one point going up to 28.5 rakes.