South East Central Railway (SECR), the country's largest freight-loading zonal railway with headquarter at Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, handled 140.6 million tonnes (mt) of revenue-earning freight in 2010-11 as compared to 132.49 mt in 2009-10, thus posting 6.1 per cent growth. The target for 2010-11 was set at 140.5 mt.

The achievement was significant for several reasons, according to SECR sources.

Target unchanged

First, unlike several other zonal railways, whose traffic targets for 2010-11 were scaled down in keeping with downward revision of overall traffic target of the Indian Railways from original 944 mt to 924 mt, there was no such revision for SECR.

The original target of 140.5 mt was kept unchanged.

Second, SECR exceeded the target, marginally though, in 2010-11 whereas in 2009-10, it posted virtually no growth in traffic over 2008-09, the throughputs in both the years having remained stagnant at 132.49 mt.

Coal was the single largest item of traffic, the volume handled in 2010-11 being 104.44 mt (97.92 mt in 2009-10), thus recording 6.7 per cent growth.

Growth

Highest growth was achieved in the throughput of raw materials (except iron ore and coal) for steel plants , more than 107 per cent, though volume-wise it was negligible at 1.19 mt (0.572 mt), followed by containerised traffic, 82.7 per cent, again on a low volume of 0.29 mt (0.156 mt). Cement posted 23.6 per cent growth at 13.49 mt (10.916 mt).

The iron ore throughput dropped 9.9 per cent at 8.57 mt (9.512 mt), foodgrains  9.4 per cent at 1.67 mt (1.846 mt), pig iron and finished steel 3.6 per cent at 7.02 mt ( 7.253 mt) and other cargo, 7.5 per cent , at 3.93 mt (4.245 mt).

The volume of fertilisers handled dropped 52.9 per cent though on a small volume of 0.02 mt (0.034mt).

There was no growth in the volume of POL traffic at 0.01 mt (0.01mt).

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