East Central Railway (ECR) has posted a 8.29 per cent growth in originating freight traffic in 2012-13 at 102.53 million tonnes (mt) over 94.68 mt in 2011-12.
Coal accounts for the largest share of traffic at more than 90 per cent. During the period under review, coal throughput was 93.34 mt, up from 86.2 mt in the previous year.
ECR sources attribute it to improved loading at mines under all the three coal companies served by it. Thus, loading at Central Coalfields Ltd’s mines was 41.51 mt, compared to 37.34 in 2011-12. The corresponding figures for other coal companies were: Northern Coalfields Ltd 27.43 mt (25.68 mt) and Bharat Coking Coal Ltd 18.5 mt (17.12 mt).
Besides, coal loading at West Bokaro mines belonging to Tata Steel, Chasnala mines belonging to IISCO also showed improvement. Loading of maize showed significant improvement at 388 rakes totalling 1.6 mt.