The Hindu Business Line : Tracking efficiencies for growth

Efficiency will be bettered through various measures. One will be to step up the technical reliability such that there are fewer failures in signalling, power supply and track maintenance and, as an effect of all this, there are fewer detentions and wagon turnaround is faster. — MR V. K. RAINA, GENERAL MANAGER, SER

With a traffic throughput of 85.9 million tonnes (mt) in 2005-06, the South Eastern Railway (SER) is the country's second largest freight-loading zonal railway after the South East Central Railway (98.47mt) and accounts for nearly 13 per cent of the total freight traffic handled by the Indian Railways. The SER has set a target of 100 mt of originating freight traffic for 2006-07. Mr V. K. Raina, General Manager, SER, while talking to Business Line, discusses various issues facing the zone.

Excerpts from the interview:

The SER has set the originating freight traffic target for 2006-07 at 100 mt. How hopeful are you of achieving it?

Very hopeful. Internally, we've already launched a campaign — "Hit The Century". Our effort will not be in vain.

Iron ore accounted for the bulk of traffic in 2005-06. In 2006-07...

Iron ore will continue to be the single largest item of SER's freight traffic. We load iron ore for large integrated steel plants, smaller sponge iron units and exports. We'll continue to do so. In 2005-06, we loaded more than 50 mt; this is to be up by another 10 mt or so in the current fiscal. Dongaposhi and Barsua, Orissa's iron ore producing belts, will continue to generate the bulk of our projected traffic.

Your average daily loading of rakes ...

The average daily loading of rakes will go up to about 94 in 2006-07 from around 80 in 2005-06 and the daily loading of iron ore rakes to 50 from 42.

Do you have enough capacity to handle the projected volume of traffic? After all, the benefit of CC plus 8 scheme will not be available to you any more...

Yes, the benefit of CC plus 8 scheme will no longer be available to us. Also, there will be no significant jump in the availability of rolling stock. But it should still be possible to handle the targeted volume of traffic if we improve our efficiency. There is still enough toothpaste left in the tube for extraction.

How do you improve your efficiency?

Through various measures. One will be to step up the technical reliability such that there are fewer failures in signalling, power supply, track maintenance and running of locomotives and, as cumulative effect of all this, there are fewer detentions and there is faster wagon turnaround. In 2005-06, the wagon turnaround time was reduced to 2.69 days from 2.85 days in 2004-05 and in March 2006 alone to 2.16. We've set the March 2006 figure as target for 2006-07. It is difficult to achieve because of seasonal variations, summer heat and monsoon floods and other factors. But if we are close to the target, it will still be an achievement.

Any plans for adding to line capacity, or acquiring additional wagons or locomotives?

Yes, we have plans. We have started working on three new projects to add to our line capacity in the iron ore loading regions and on new sidings and we propose to bring 47 additional terminals under the online freight information system to bring the total to 77. Under the Wagon Investment Scheme, we have already got two rakes deployed on the circuit by two private firms, Shyam Steel and Taurian Exports, and hope to have another one by Bagaria Brothers shortly.

In all we'll have 20 rakes in our circuit under WIS. We're improving our signalling system so that the speed of the certain passenger trains can be increased and, to the extent we achieve it, there will be room for more freight trains.

The Indian Railways has decided to step up the acquisition of locomotives and wagons by 10 per cent and we'll have our share. Frankly, there is no single step to improve our efficiency but a slew of steps.

How many rakes do you have now... are these enough?

We now have around 300 rakes, nearly half being of BOXN type. We can absorb another 15-20 rakes easily.

Your improved efficiency will meet the requirement of how many additional rakes...

Ten at the most.

Which means ...

We'll still need another 10 rakes or so to meet our requirement.

The steel sector accounts for the bulk of your traffic, by way of movement of both raw materials and finished goods. How do you propose to meet the requirement of the additional steel capacity being created in the regions served by you?

Yes, it is a big challenge and we're gearing ourselves to meet it. By 2007-08, Tata Steel's capacity will rise to 6 mt and we're spending several crore of rupees to create additional facilities to meet the requirement of the private sector steel giant's projected increase in production. But we are also concerned beyond 2007-08. Tata Steel is planning to set up a 10 mt plant at Seraikela in Jhakhand, and proposes further capacity expansion at the Jamshedpur plant. The Jindals and the Mittals too are planning steel plants in Jharkhand. At Nayagarh (Orissa), Tata Steel is planning a pelletisation plant. We're therefore undertaking a traffic survey till 2015 to assess the likely traffic growth and the additional capacity to be created to support the projected growth and the additional investments to be needed to fund the projected addition to capacity.

Any other challenge...

If I had my way I would have perhaps tried to make the organisation more responsive to customers' as well as our own needs.