The Hindu Business Line : Railway Board mulls busy season freight surcharge

While the extent of the proposed levy and the timing of introducing are yet to be finalised, the plan will have at least 5-7 per cent surcharge with effect from October.

The Railway Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad, refrained from announcing any proposal for freight or fare hike while presenting the Rail Budget for 2007-08, virtually a repeat performance of the previous one.

However, as is common knowledge now, during the course of 2006-07, he resorted to several measures amounting to freight hike. The 2007-08 fiscal too will not be very different, it is learnt.

The Railways has already slapped 30 per cent surcharge by way of inflated kilometreage on the basic freight in respect of traffic to be moved on the Banspani-Daitari line under the East Coast Railway. The line is to be thrown open for regular movement of rakes shortly.

The 99-km Keonjhargarh-Tomca section on the 155-km Banspani-Daitari route was commissioned some time in the middle of February.

With this, the entire Banspani-Daitari line now becomes ready for handling freight traffic, mainly iron ore for exports through Paradip port.

However, the line is yet to be opened for regular movement of rakes; only trial runs are being undertaken.

Defending the decision to slap surcharge on the Banspani-Daitari line, the Railway sources said that there is nothing unusual about it.

Similar surcharges were levied in the past on various other routes such as Hassan-Bangalore and Kottavalasa-Kirandul sections where the topography resulted in high construction cost.

The Railways is within its rights to collect extra freight for transportation of goods in geographically difficult regions, they added.

Certain stretches on the Banspani-Daitari section too have undulating topography but the Railway line has been constructed so that it can handle 25-tonne axle load compared to other sections capable of handling axle load ranging of 20.3-23 tonnes.

The cost of construction of line suitable for higher axle load is much higher than those suitable for normal axle load.

Exporters of iron ore through Paradip port stand to benefit immensely from the commissioning of the Banspani-Daitari line.

The commissioning has reduced the distance between Orissa's iron ore-rich Keonjhargarh region and Paradip port by about 340 km compared to the earlier route via Kharagpur in West Bengal.

When compared with the cost of road movement, the benefit will be much higher. The additional surcharge by way of inflated kilometreage is seen as not causing any major strain on exporters.