The Hindu Business Line : The vital missing track

The railway line between New Mangalore Port and its hinterland areas will help boost traffic volumes of the port and increase business volumes for those in the hinterland.

The hinterland users of New Mangalore Port are eagerly waiting for the commissioning of the Bangalore-Hassan-Mangalore railway line for freight traffic.

A vital missing link between New Mangalore Port and its hinterland areas for the past 10 years, the railway line will help boost the port's traffic volumes greatly and increase the business volumes of users in the hinterland.

The stretch between Hassan and Mangalore on the Bangalore-Mangalore sector commenced operations in December 1979 as a metre-gauge track.

The Railway Board sanctioned the gauge conversion work between Hassan and Mangalore in 1994-95. In 1996, the Government decided to convert the metre-gauge line into a broad-gauge line. This led to suspension of the cargo and passenger services on this section.

Out of the 1,91,757 sq km of area of Karnataka, New Mangalore Port has hinterland of 69,120 sq km. While iron ore is the major cargo in the Bellary-Hospet and Tumkur regions of the hinterland, Bangalore and Mysore regions bring container cargoes to the port.

The major exporters of iron ore fines from the Bellary-Hospet region and importers of coal and fertiliser cargoes in Karnataka are likely to reap the benefit of the facility.

According to sources in the shipping sector, the Bangalore-Hassan-Mangalore railway line will be opened for freight traffic from April. However, the Railway officials are yet to announce a date in this regard.

IRON ORE

Of the 30 million tonnes of iron ore mined in the State, a major quantity is moving to other ports due to the lack of a rail link to New Mangalore Port.

The Bangalore-Mangalore railway line is expected to move around six million tonnes of iron ore cargo a year from Bellary-Hospet, Tumkur and Chitradurga regions to New Mangalore Port. The loading of iron ore at the mine sites will be five to six rakes a day. That will also be the unloading rate at New Mangalore Port.

In the past few years, exporters from the iron ore-rich hinterland areas are contributing a significantly quantity to the traffic volumes of the port. Now they are iron ore cargoes in trucks.

The Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd (KIOCL) is planning to bring iron ore to its pellet plant in Mangalore through this railway line. KIOCL now brings in iron ore through the circuitous Konkan railway route. It does not transport it in trucks.

Company sources say that the freight charge is more than the ore charge, if the ore is transported through the circuitous route. The commissioning of Bangalore-Hassan-Mangalore railway line will drastically bring down the distance from the iron ore mines to the KIOCL plant. This will help reduce the freight charge.

CONTAINER

Container will also get a boost in volumes with this railway line. Though New Mangalore is not a hub port for container cargo, feeder line service is available for the port users.

On an average, 24,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of container cargo is being exported from Karnataka and 22,000 TEUs imported through various other ports in the country.

A study conducted by Indian Ports Association in 2004 mentioned that a rail link to the port could help divert a part of these cargoes to New Mangalore Port.

A railway line will help the port handle 11,000 TEUs to 18,000 TEUs a year. The study envisaged that 30 TEUs a day was being handled through the railway line in the present scenario.

By 2020, the port may be able to handle 20,000 TEUs to 47,000 TEUs a year. The port handled 8,943 TEUs in 2004-05.

IMPORT CARGO

The import cargoes such as fertiliser and coal are in good demand in the hinterland areas. New Mangalore Port imported 4.71 lakh tonnes of fertiliser cargo in the first nine months of this fiscal as against 2.16 lakh tonnes in the corresponding previous period.

Sources in the port said that a rake of fertiliser cargo was moved through the railway line in one of the trial runs. Various sugar industries and thermal plants need coal for their operations.

The port imported 3.83 lakh tonnes of coal cargo in the first nine months of 2005-06 as against 2.44 lakh tonnes in the corresponding previous period.

Industries in the hinterland areas are eager to take the benefit of railway line as soon as it is commissioned for freight traffic. The Railway authorities have conducted 11 trial runs on the railway line with small portions of iron ore fines.

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