• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

Kolkata, Sept. 21 The poor loading of rakes at the iron ore mines at Kiriburu and Meghataburu and the detention of loaded rakes at various plants of Steel Authority of India (SAIL) have dealt a blow to South Eastern Railway’s (SER) freight loading programme.

Against the targeted iron ore loading programme of 16.5 rakes a day on SAIL account, the daily average was 12 rakes a day in August and around 13 rakes a day so far in September. SER is apprehensive that it might not be able to meet its freight traffic target of 111 million tonnes (mt) for the current fiscal, as SAIL is its single largest customer.

In 2006-07, the SAIL plants accounted for a total traffic throughput of 22.9 mt (raw materials 17.1 mt and finished products 5.8 mt) out of SER’s total traffic throughput of 99 mt.

The Kiruburu/Meghataburu mines cater largely to SAIL’s Bokaro and Rourkela plants.

The daily average loading in these mines so far in the current month has been 5.7 rakes against the programme of 7.3 rakes a day.

Currently the detention of rakes at Rourkela steel plant is the highest.

For the past 10 days or so, the steel plant is holding on an average 11 iron ore rakes a day against the normal five rakes.

For whatever reasons, the steel plant is unable to unload ore and release the rakes on time.

The average free time for a BOX N rake in a steel plant is 14 hours. Interestingly, this is happening at a time when the stock position of iron ore at the plant level is not too comfortable.

The detention of rakes in other SAIL plants located at Bokaro and Durgapur too was a matter of concern till recently.

At Durgapur the average detention of a rake went up to as high as 60 hours and at Bokaro 30 hours.

Fortunately, the situation in these plants has improved since then.

More Stories on : Railways | Steel Authority of India Ltd

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
H1 air passenger traffic posts 27% growth

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line