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Santanu Sanyal

The long wagon detention time is the bane of rail operations at the BSL plant, which is stuck with 63 outdated locos and over 400 none-too-good wagons.

RITES Ltd, a subsidiary of the Indian Railways, has prepared a Rs 231.87-crore railway rehabilitation scheme for Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL), the largest flat products unit of the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL). The highlights of the scheme include modification of existing yards, lines and stations (Rs 30.66 crore), rehabilitation of tracks (Rs 68.03 crore), railway electrification (Rs 4 crore), new locos (Rs 78 crore), acquisition of one 140-tonne diesel rail crane (Rs 10 crore), additional facilities for loco shop (Rs 3.18 crore), new tipplers and pusher cars (Rs 15 crore) and signalling and communications (Rs 23 crore).

RITES has noted with concern that the excessively long wagon detention time and the consequent huge demurrage are the bane of rail operations in the BSL plant complete with more than 300 km of tracks that are more than 35 years old; 63 locomotives, mostly unsuitable for present day requirements; and over 400 wagons, mostly in not-too-good shape.

SAIL's big plans

As per SAIL's corporate plan 2011-12, BSL's hot metal production is to rise to 6.5 million tonnes (mt) from 4.4 mt in 2004-05 and finished steel to 5.95 mt (3.57 mt). The raw material movement is thus projected to rise to 22.4 mt (16.8 mt). The rail infrastructure, according to RITES, is clearly inadequate to handle the projected increased volume of traffic.

Take the movement of raw materials. BSL, according to the study, will use more and more of imported coal, so much so that by 2011-12 over 97 per cent (58.9 per cent in 2004-05) of its coal requirement will be met by imports. The wagon requirement for moving coal, both indigenous and imported, into the plant will, it is estimated, rise to 4.84 rakes per day (2.94 in 04-05) and the entire movement has to be in Box-N rakes. RITES notes that the average detention of coal wagon during the period of study was 22 hours against the free time of 12 hours. It, therefore, has made several suggestions for improvement such as extending the post tippler lines to full rake length and electrification of certain lines.

Long detention time

The detention of wagons carrying middling coal for the power plant is even higher — 42 hours compared to the norm of 12 hours. The reasons: Inadequate wagon handling facility and inconvenient location of the wagon handling plant. The RITES suggestions, therefore, include deployment of high capacity wagons and the setting up of a common tippler complex with two tipplers, one for CDI coal and the other for middling coal.

The iron ore requirement is projected to rise to 10.7 mt in 2011-12 from 6.28 mt in 2004-05. The iron ore traffic originates from the areas served by the Chkradharpur division of the South Eastern Railway. In 2004-05, the average detention of iron ore wagon was 24.4 hours, and it dropped to 22.9 hours in the first quarter of 2005-06 compared to permissible free time of 14 hours for Box N rakes.

The ore complex has better facilities than the coal complex and yet there is hardly any difference in their levels of performance. The study attributes this to limitations in conveyor routes. Of the four conveyor routes at the ore handling complex, only two are available for transporting ore while two others are used for handling flux. In the iron ore complex, 85 per cent of the traffic is ore and yet the conveyor facility is enough to handle 50 per cent of the traffic. There is, therefore, need for a fifth conveyor route to be used exclusively for iron ore traffic.

Higher capacity wagons

The Railway Board has decided to induct higher capacity wagons of 100 tonnes immediately and of 120 tonnes subsequently. The capacity of the tipplers and conveyor, therefore, needs to be upgraded to meet the requirement of the higher capacity wagons.

Also, as the RITES report suggests, track condition should be improved, fines should be cleared on priority basis and the tippling or lump ore should be planned in advance keeping in view the difficulties in the operation of the screening plant.

Despatch of saleable steel

MECON has prepared a comprehensive report on the product mix of BSL by 2011-12. According to the report, 5.9506 mt of saleable steel will comprise 3.686 mt of Hot Rolled products and 2.1658 mt of Cold Rolled products. During the period of study, RITES experts noted with concern that the detention of wagons loaded with HR coils was more than 60 hours. The corresponding figures for HR plates was more than 70 hours and for HR sheets more than 90 hours.

The loading of 2.1658 mt of CR products annually by 2011-12 will mean loading of 5934 tonnes on 97 flat wagons daily. The existing capacity can handle 60 wagons. RITES, therefore, has suggested the creation of additional handling capacity, proper track maintenance and ban on tree plantation within six metres of any track.

The RITES study makes it clear that revamped low hp loco supplied by BHEL should be withdrawn forthwith and the existing 1,400 hp WDS6 locos should be replaced by higher capacity 3,100 hp WDG 3 types. Ten such higher capacity locos should be acquired immediately. While BSL can boast of a fleet of 465 wagons on paper, the actual number is not exactly known as there wagon census has not been done in the past 10 years. For many wagons, PoH (periodic overhauling ) is long overdue. A definite programme for replacement and revamping of the wagon fleet, therefore, is urgently needed. The rehabilitation of the wagon fleet should be continued by an outside expert agency, observes the study.

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