The Hindu Business Line : SCR eyes new avenues to raise freight traffic

The South Central Railway (SCR), which is celebrating 40th anniversary this week, is looking at tapping new avenues to increase the scope of freight traffic significantly.

The zone eyes opportunities in transporting fly ash from powerhouses to cement industry and sand to the construction industry.

The zone serves about 30 cement plants, making it the highest cement loading zone in the country. Last year, it lifted about 20 per cent of the entire cement loaded on the Railways.

The potential for fly ash was estimated to be in the region of 25-30 million tonnes annually for the Indian Railways. The SCR initiative is expected to trigger a major drive in this regard.

On an experimental basis, one POL (petroleum, oil, lubricant) tank wagon was modified to facilitate transport of fly ash and was deployed during 2005-06. "The trial run proved a success," a senior SCR official told Business Line.

Encouraged by the success, four more rakes were being modified for use on other fly ash circuits.

Sand too promised a good potential. "We have taken up transportation of sand for the construction industry in a big way. This year, we have already recorded loading of 12 rakes, he said.

Festivities

Marking the completion of 40 years of its existence, the zone had decided to hold 10 days of festivities, beginning Sunday.

Talking on the growth of the zone in terms of passenger traffic, the official said it all began with a small number of 4.7 million in 1966, when the zone began its operations. Last year, the zone carried over 216 million, showing an annual growth of 3.7 per cent during the period.

Despite losing out almost all of the iron ore traffic to the newly carved out Hubli division in 2003, the zone could achieve higher freight traffic at 57.5 million tonnes.