The Hindu Business Line : East Coast Rly hopeful of higher throughput

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Kolkata Feb. 13 East Coast Railway, with headquarters in Bhubaneswar, hopes to handle freight traffic of about 85 million tonnes (mt) in 2006-07 as compared to 78 mt in the previous year, and more than half of it will be coal. The estimated coal throughput during the year would be around 45 mt as against 36.9 mt in 2005-06. "We crossed last year's throughput level in January," observes the East Coast Railway sources.

Till January, the total freight traffic handled was 68 mt, up by 5 mt over the same period last year. The bulk of the incremental traffic was coal, more than 3 mt, followed by fertilisers up by 1 mt at 5 mt. "There was a sudden spurt in the imports of fertilisers and foodgrains through Visakhapatnam port in the past three months," say the sources.

Fall in iron loading

The iron throughput on the other hand has been less than satisfactory, it is pointed out. The bulk of Railway's iron traffic is loaded at the National Mineral Development Corporation's mines in Bacheli-Kirandul area. The loading has been affected due to delay on the part of NMDC to firm up export contracts and critical law and order situation caused by Naxalite activities. The daily average loading of iron rakes has dropped to around 13 from the normal 17. Calculated on annualised basis, the shortfall will be about 4 mt annually. "We don't think we'll be able to make up the shortfall during the remainder of the year," the sources say. The average daily loading at Daitari area, the other iron ore rich region in Orissa, however remains unchanged at two rakes a day.

New trains

Meanwhile, on the passenger front, a new weekly train between Puducherry and Bhubaneswar will be inaugurated on Wednesday and flagged off at Puducherry. From February 20, the daily Yashwantpur-Visakhapatnam Express will be extended to Bhubaneswar. From the middle of next month, a new tri-weekly intercity express will run between Baripada and Bhubaneswar. This has been made possible because of the gauge conversion between Rupsa, which is on the Howrah-Bhubaneswar line, and Baripada.