The Hindu Business Line : Railways strikes black gold

THE monsoon is on but there has not been any let up in loading of wagons of the Indian Railways. If anything, the average daily loading so far this year has been higher than last year.

Take, for example, the average daily loading of coal which accounts for nearly 50 per cent of the total freight traffic of the Railways. In June, the average daily loading of coal wagons (including of imported coking coal at the ports) was nearly 29,000 (in terms of four-wheelers), up by about 2500 over the corresponding previous period. The trend in July has not been very different.

Loading pattern

One reason for this is that the average daily loading at Eastern Coalfields Limited and Central Coalfields Limited, the two major coal producing companies, has been better than last year.

Thus, the average daily loading at ECL mines, covering both Raneegunge and Magma/Salanpur areas, so far this year has been around 1,600 wagons compared to 1,350 in the same period last year. The same is true of CCL mines covering Karanpura and other areas, where the average daily loading has been of the order of 3300 wagons compared to 2800 in the same period of the last year. South Eastern Coalfields and Mahanadi Coalfields too have stepped up their loading this year.

Better facilities

The Railways, of course, takes credit for the improvement. The average turnaround time has now dropped to six-seven days. This has been possible, it is claimed, due to the deployment of the improved types of wagons and locomotives and upgradation of systems and facilities. But, then, the Railways cannot really take all credit. The user industries too have geared themselves up to meet the new challenges. For example, most collieries now have mechanised system of loading and a coal rake can now be loaded within three hours against 14/15 hours previously. Earlier it used to be manual loading. Not any more. Payloaders are now used. Certain collieries linked to powerhouses have the merry-go-round system of loading with dedicated wagons shuttling between mines and power plants. All this too have contributed to the better wagon utilisation. Yet it will be a rash to claim that everything is hunky-dory. For example, even after having achieved better utilisation of wagon stock, the Railways cannot rule out the idling of a sizeable number of wagons during monsoon. But that is almost inevitable. Every year during the rainy season, the wagon demand drops. This year is no exception.

Transportation problems

Vast areas in Bihar, North-East and northern parts of West Bengal have remained cut off by the floods, thus hampering rail movement. The production in collieries is affected by the flooding of the mines during this time of the year.

The construction activities are normally at low ebb restricting movement of cement and steel, so are a host of other activities. The foodgrains movement too is on a limited scale.

Right now the Railways movement in eastern region, the country's largest coal loading region, has also been hampered by not-so-satisfactory performance of Bharat Coking Coal mines. There has been some problems in road transportation of coal from the mines to the nearest railheads. As a result, the average daily loading has dropped to 1600 wagons from the around 2100 in the same period last year. This has hit badly the East Central Railway (350 wagons) and South-Eastern Railway (150 wagons). A drop in loading of 500 wagons means a shortfall of about 12,000 tonnes of the material supply to the consumers.

There is yet another problem: The Railway loading, as the Railway sources point out, would have been still better but for the limited capacity of the ports, not only in terms of restricted railway line capacity but also in terms of other parameters such faster clearing of wagons, and faster loading and unloading. The single line network between Cuttack and the Paradip port is a major constraint. The same is true about Panskura-Haldia single-line network.

The sources point out that doubling of the certain stretches of the Cuttack-Paradip line will be complete by next year, bringing some relief. The doubling of the Panskura-Haldia section is not immediately on the cards. But the Railways are not unduly worried over it. Even within the present line capacity, it should be possible to run more freight trains, it is felt.

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