The Hindu Business Line : East Coast Rly forced to move empty rakes at Gopalpur, Gangavaram ports

The mismatch between imports and exports in two of the east coast ports is forcing East Coast Railway (ECoR) serving these ports to move empty rakes at a cost.

ECoR is now moving one rake of iron ore daily (for exports) to Gopalpur port in Orissa. However, there being no matching traffic available at the port for back-loading, the rake has to return empty. Gopalpur port started handling iron ore exports recently. Last year, it handled for two months. This year, the ore has already started arriving at the port for exports though the shipment is yet to start, according to informed sources.

Gangavaram scene

Gangavaram port in Andhra Pradesh, also served by ECoR, presents just the opposite picture. ECoR has to move every day at least two empty rakes into the port to load imported coal, both non-coking and coking, for transportation to various power houses and steel plants respectively. This is because the number of inward rakes into the port is not enough for back-loading.

Three rakes a day on an average move into the port with iron ore for exports whereas the cargo inducement (import) for outward movement is adequate for five rakes. ECoR, therefore, has to move two empty rakes into the port to clear the import, mainly coal.

Normally, this is the season when wagon demand generally picks up.

However, as ECoR sources point out, the empty rakes moving into Gangavaram port are required to cover a small distance as these rakes are sourced from the neighbouring Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, also served by ECoR, only a few km away. So, the cost of empty movement to Gangavaram is negligible.

In the case of Gopalpur port, the empty movement takes place over a longer distance as the rakes, on unloading iron ore at the port, are generally required to return to Talcher mines located more than 100 km away.

ECoR, as sources point out, faces no such problem at two other east coast ports – Paradip and Visakhapatnam – where there is matching traffic for back-loading.

Total traffic

Meanwhile, between April and October, ECoR handled a total traffic of 58.50 million tonnes as against the targeted 55.68 mt, thus surpassing the target set for the period by 2.82 mt. The throughput was 55.07 mt in the same period of last year. “The recession has bypassed ECoR,” observed the sources.