The Hindu Business Line : East Central Railway’s coal loading takes a hit

Major hurdles
Maoists are active in large part of ECR’s loading areas.
Problems in road movement of coal from the mines to the nearest railheads.
Movement of coal in April and May hit due to non-availability of trucks.

Santanu Sanyal

Kolkata, Aug. 11 Coal loading, which accounts for the bulk of freight loading of the East Central Railway (ECR) — 70.02 mt out of the total of 76.71 mt in 2008-09 — is causing concern to the authorities of the Hajipur-based zonal railway.

Till July (April to July), the coal throughout was 23 million tonnes (mt) as against the target of 23.74 mt.

“The shortfall so far is not much, yet we keep our fingers crossed,” a spokesman for ECR told Business Line, explaining that the Karanpura area, the mainstay of the railway’s coal loading, was located in the Maoist area.

In fact, as it was pointed out, the Maoists are active in large part of ECR’s coal loading areas. There had been problems in road bridging, that is road movement of coal from the mines to the nearest railheads. The daily average loading at North Karanpura under Central Coalfields Ltd had been around 15/16 rakes against the targeted 23/24 rakes.

This year the monsoon has been delayed. “Once the monsoon breaks in full fury, the coal production as well as loading will be badly hit,” he observed.

For 2009-10, ECR’s coal loading target has been set at 74.93 mt, out of the total targeted freight traffic of 82 mt.

In fact, ECR’s total freight traffic till July at 25.23 mt was lower than the targeted 26.11 mt., thus recording a 3.37 per cent shortfall from the target. “Compared with the same period of last year (April to July 2008), when we handled 26.11 mt, we’re however up 4.65 per cent,” the spokesman said, adding, “but that is of little comfort”. The first two months, April and May, were particularly bad and the traffic throughput in these months was less than that in the same period last year.

The road movement of coal in April and May was badly hit by the non-availability of trucks which were requisitioned for the election work. Fortunately, the loading in July had been good — 6.05 mt (92,762 Box N wagons) as against 4.82 mt (74,991 wagons) in the same month last year, he added.

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