The Hindu Business Line : Rail movement resumes on K-K line under East Coast Rly

In normal situation, 15 rakes of ore are transported on the line every day - 10 for Visakhapatnam port for exports and the five others for Visakhapatnam Steel Plant.

Kolkata June 13 Rail movement has resumed on the 450-km long Kottavalasa-Kirandul (K-K) line under the East Coast Railway after having remained suspended for nearly two weeks.

The suspension in movement was caused by the non-availability of electricity as the Maoists had blown up transmission towers in Chhattisgarh.

Dedicated rakes

A spokesman for the East Coast Railway said 10 rakes loaded with iron ore had been moved on the line for exports through the Visakhapatnam port as well as to meet the requirements of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd. Some of the dedicated rakes, which were withdrawn from the circuit were now being brought back.

In all, there are 30 dedicated rakes for movement on the K-K line as the turnaround time of each rake is close to three days.

One-third of the rakes, which were withdrawn, were now being put back on the circuit.

In normal situation, 15 rakes of ore are transported on the line every day - 10 for Visakhapatnam port for exports and the five others for Visakhapatnam Steel Plant.

The spokesman, however, pointed out that the rake loading of coal at Talcher mines under Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd, which was disrupted by the agitation of the local people demanding rehabilitation and jobs, was yet to become normal.

Targets

"We're loading around 20/22 rakes a day against the targeted 26/27 rakes ", he said.

A spokesman for Visakhapatnam Steel Plant said six rakes of ore were expected to arrive soon.

The suspension of movement in the past two weeks did not create much problem for the steel plant which held sufficient stocks of ore.

Also, two rakes of lump ore were received from Donamalai areas as a precaution.

Iron ore pellets

RINL, as he pointed out, was also exploring the possibility of using iron ore pellets and accordingly would import (by the coastal route) about 50,000 tonnes of pellets from Kudremukh Iron Ore Company.

"A ship is currently being loaded at the New Mangalore port", he said.

RINL was also mulling creating an additional buffer stock closer to the plant to store about two lakh tonnes of ore to meet the exigencies.

"In past few months we had two major incidents disrupting iron ore movement on the K-K line and we, therefore, would not like to take chances", he said.

Visakhapatnam Steel Plant currently needs about 2.4 million tonnes of iron ore lumps and another 4.2 mt of iron ore fines annually.

A spokesman for the Visakhapatnam Port Trust said that from 10 and 11A mines, only three rakes were being loaded per day for the port as against four rakes for RINL.