The Hindu Business Line : Iron ore movement on East Coast Rly’s K-K line hit again

ECoR has been forced to clamp restriction on movement following reports from the intelligence agencies, both State and Central, that the Maoists might blow up a portion of line falling within Chhattisgarh. The 150-km stretch between Kirandul and Jagdalpur is in Chhattisgarh.

The Railway staff posted in the stations located in the area too have started receiving threats from the Maoists who are believed to have emerged stronger after the recent jail-break incident in Chhattisgarh. It might be noted that the rake movement on the K-K Line remained suspended, either partially or wholly, on several occasions this year, largely due to disturbed law and order situation in the areas served by the line.

The intelligence reports reached ECoR headquarter in Bhubaneswar on December 24. The immediate reaction was to totally suspend all movement on the entire stretch between Kirandul and Kottavalasa. However, on second thought it was decided to run rakes on limited scale during day time only. There would be no movement at night.

The Railway Board Chairman discussed the matter with the Chief Secretary of the Chhattisgarh Government. The limited movement, therefore, was introduced from December 25, with the result only seven rakes are being run now as against normal 15/16 a day, according to railway sources. Total suspension of movement was not favoured because this being the busy season, the demand for traffic is high. Besides, Visakhapatnam steel plant is totally dependent on the K-K Line for iron ore sourced from National Mineral Development Corporation’s mines at Bailadila.

Normal situation

In normal situation, the iron ore throughput of the K-K Line is about 15-16 million tonnes annually. Any significant drop, therefore, will disturb the overall traffic throughput projected for ECoR for the whole year, more so because the drop in one sector could not be entirely made up by improved performance in other sectors already having capacity constraints, not only at the level of the railways but also at the level of the mines.

The iron ore movement on the K-K Line having been badly hit several times this year, the average throughput so far in the current year works out to barely 10 rakes a day.

The Railway Board, it is learnt, therefore is seriously considering cutting down on the deployment of rakes and locomotives on the K-K Line.

More Stories on : Railways | Minerals | Terrorism

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