The Hindu Business Line : Railways asked to speed up work on Rajgoda-Haldia link

THE Haldia dock authorities have urged the Railways to start work immediately to double the 43-km stretch between Rajgoda and Haldia on the Panskura-Haldia section of the South Eastern Railway.

This was communicated to the Member (Traffic) of the Railway Board during his recent visit to Haldia and he is believed to have promised to look into the matter.

The Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL), which is expected to double the entire 59-km stretch between Panskura and Haldia at a cost of Rs 247 crore, has completed work only up to Rajgoda, which is 16 km from Panskura.

The fate of the Rajgoda-Haldia stretch remains uncertain, as the authorities are reportedly yet to sanction the project. Inquiries showed that RVNL has set 2008-09 as the target year of completion for the entire work.

But dock authorities want the work speeded up in view of the steady increase in traffic throughput, particularly dry bulk items like iron ore (for exports) and coal (imports) — both coking and power-grade, at the dock. The iron ore exports passing through the dock are expected to cross 8 million tonnes in the current fiscal, compared to last year's throughput of 5 mt.

Similarly, coking coal import for Steel Authority of India Ltd is expected to be around 5.5 mt (four mt) and steam coal import, handled for the first time in the current fiscal for National Thermal Power Corporation's Farakka and Kahalgaon plants, might be slightly less than one mt in 2005-06 with the prospect of doubling the quantity the next year.

Dock authorities estimate that traffic throughput in the next five years will increase about 10 mt to touch about 46 mt. In 2004-05, the dock handled 36 mt, which is likely to increase to more than 40 mt in the current fiscal as the overall traffic grew excess of 20 per cent. However, the dock will lose substantial crude traffic as soon as the Paradip-Haldia crude pipeline becomes operational.

With the rise in the overall traffic throughput, the volume of rail-borne traffic too will increase. In 2004-05, the volume of rail-borne traffic was 14 mt and is likely to increase to 16 mt in the current fiscal. Currently, the dock handles six to seven rakes a day in each direction, and this is likely to increase to 13-14 rakes a day once the doubling of the Panskura-Haldia section is completed. More important, the average turnaround time will vastly improve.

Meanwhile, normal loading and unloading operations at the dock remained suspended today (Thursday) owing to the strike called by various Central trade unions. No work was undertaken in 16 of the 18 ships berthed in the dock. Fifteen of theships are foreign flag carriers. The average daily cargo throughput at Haldia dock is a little more than one lakh tonnes.

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