The Hindu Business Line : Eastern Rly's Howrah unit may handle 3.5 mt coal

Kolkata May 10 Eastern Railway's Howrah division, which started handling coal traffic a couple of years ago, is now set to achieve a big jump in throughput.

In 2005-06, the coal throughput was barely one lakh tonnes, which jumped to 1.6 million tonnes (mt) in 2006-07.

"In the current fiscal, we hope to handle 3.5 mt, if not more, of coal," Mr A.K. Maitra, Divisional Railway Manager, Howrah Division of ER, told Business Line.

Mr Maitra would attribute the increase in coal traffic to Punjab Emta, a joint venture between Punjab State Electricity Board and Emta Group of West Bengal, engaged in transportation of power-grade coal from Pakur area in Jharkhand to Punjab.

"The coal has found wide acceptance among power houses in the northern region," he said.

The average daily coal loading of wagons (in terms of four-wheelers) in the Howrah division too, has gone up from 10 in 2005-06 to 177 in 2006-07.

The figure in the current year, it is estimated, will be 390 wagons per day. Mr Maitra ruled out any shortage of wagons.

Step up infrastructure

However, Eastern Railway, as it was pointed out, was being required to step up other infrastructure at Pakur, the loading point, to cope with the increased volume of traffic.

For example, a bypass line (Y connection) had been built on cost-sharing basis with Punjab Emta.

The wagon maintenance facility too, was being revamped so that maintenance of wagons could be undertaken without having to detach the wagons.

Also, steps have been taken to ensure what was called in railways long kilometreage validity. That is to say, inspection of wagons would not be required between loadings for a period of one month.

"In Pakur, we've 17 dedicated rakes for closed circuit movement for transportation of stone and stone chips and we've already introduced the system in respect of them," Mr Maitra said, pointing out that the Premium rake system for Box N wagons used for loading coal was also being introduced there. As a result, coal rakes could run without inspection for 15 days.

Stone, stone chips

In Pakur, stone and stone chips had been the major traffic till recently.

"It continues to be an important item of traffic in my division," said Mr Maitra pointing out that the daily average loading of wagons for stone and stone chips jumped from 581 in 2005-06 to 693 in 2006-07 and was estimated to rise to 800 in the current fiscal.

"We're working on a comprehensive scheme to augment various facilities at Pakur in view of the projected increase in traffic throughput", Mr Maitra added. "The volume of coal traffic might go up to 10 mt annually by the end of the Eleventh Plan."