The Hindu Business Line : Rlys told to give priority to power-grade coal

Kolkata, Feb. 6 The Union Government’s decision asking the Railways to give top priority to rake allotment for transportation of power-grade coal has come as a boon to Orissa’s major port, Paradip, as well as Bhubaneswar-based zonal railway, East Coast Railway (ECoR).

“In January, we loaded imported coal at Paradip port at the rate of 9.2 rakes per day on an average, which is the highest ever”, according to a spokesman for ECoR, the previous best being 8.5 rakes in December 2008 and also in March 2008.

The power-grade variety accounted for the larger share of the import — 370,964 tonnes out of the total coal import of 546,282 tonnes.

However, the loading of imported coal at Visakhapatnam, also served by ECoR, was not as spectacular. In January, the average daily loading was 5.6 rakes, down from 6.2 in December, and 6.3 each in October and November, and 7.6 in September. This was because, as the spokesman explained, the Steel Authority of India Ltd’s decision to go slow over coking coal import. Visakhapatnam port, as it was pointed out, would hardly handle power-grade coal import. Also, the neighbouring Gangavaram port has started cornering the bulk of the non-coking coal import for the region.

Gangavaram port, served by ECoR, now handles on an average about 2.5 rakes of imported coal every day and the bulk of it is for the power houses located in the hinterland.

The throughput of imported non-coking coal through Gangavaram port, it is felt, will increase in coming days as NTPC’s power houses in Ramagundam, Simadri and Kanhia and various other units located in western Orissa-Chhattisgarh regions are likely to make more use of this new private port.

However, the spot market iron ore export (i.e., other than long-term contracts being executed by NMDC) through Visakhapatnam is showing an upward trend — 5.8 rakes day on an average in January compared with 5.5 rakes in April 2008.

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