Shortage of wagons hitting mineral supply by PSUs

A shortage of railway wagons is affecting raw material transportation from mines operated by steel PSUs like National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), the government today admitted in the Rajya Sabha.

"NMDC Ltd, a PSU under the Ministry of Steel, is facing the problem of non-availability of rakes (wagons) for outward movement of iron ore from its mines in the states of Chhattisgarh and Karnataka," Minister of State for Steel A Sai Prathap told the Upper House today.

"KIOCL Ltd, another PSU under the Ministry of Steel, is also not getting wagons as per its requirement for movement of iron ore fines from the Donimalai iron ore mine and Bailadilla Kirandul Mines of NMDC in the states of Karnataka and Chhattisgarh respectively," he said.

The government has already said that there is a paucity of wagons and it could procure only 31,815 rakes in the first three years of the 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-12) against a requirement of 62,000 wagons.

Prathap said the problem has been brought to the notice of the Ministry of Railways and a joint consultative mechanism committee, comprising representatives of the Ministries of Railways and Steel and all PSUs under the Ministry of Steel, is periodically reviewing it.

"NMDC and KIOCL have also been in touch with the Railways on a regular basis. However, to take care of the requirements... Further increase in the supply of rakes is necessary," the Minister said. Earlier, Coal India too had said that coal transportation was affected due to short supply of wagons.

Outlining the roadmap for the growth of the Indian Railways, the government last month has said that plans are afoot to double the existing fleet of wagons by 2,020. It plans to add 2.9 lakh wagons in the next decade.