The Hindu Business Line : Rlys extends freight discounts to loadings from N-E

The freight discount would not be extended to goods being moved from within the region – from one location to another in the North-East. The concession is also not being extended to inward goods movement to the region.

Mamuni Das

New Delhi, Aug. 14

With an aim to get some incremental traffic from the North-East, the Indian Railways has decided to extend six per cent freight discount to commodities being loaded from the region.

However, the concession is not extended to coal and petroleum oil and lubricants (POL), which account for almost 75-80 per cent of goods loaded and about 90 per cent of freight revenues in the region.

“This move may result in the railways getting additional timber and bamboo traffic,” said official sources.

The discounts, which would come into effect from August 15, would be applicable on all commodities (except coal and POL) that would be loaded from stations in Assam and other North-East States for movement to rest of the country, they said.

Traffic loadings

At present, coal and POL account for a significant share of the traffic in the North-East region. While the exact State-wise railway loading details were not available, for the Northeast Frontier railway zone, out of 0.78 million tonnes (mt) of traffic loaded by Railways in April 2007, almost 80 per cent of traffic loadings were accounted for by coal and POL. While 0.32 mt was coal traffic, another 0.3 mt was POL, according to official statistics of the Indian Railways.

The Northeast Frontier zone, headquartered at Guwahati, comprises railway tracks present in North-Eastern States and some parts of Bihar.

Similarly, in terms of revenue earnings for the zone, out of Rs 100.25 crore freight revenues in April, Rs 92.36 crore accrued from coal and POL loadings. Earnings from coal loadings were Rs 48.1 crore and those from POL were Rs 44.26 crore.

“We had been getting several requests from businesses in the North-East, seeking freight reductions. They were promising additional traffic in lieu of these discounts,” said sources.