South Central Railways set to join 100 mn tn league

The present financial year is going to be a landmark for the South Central Railway (SCR). It is set to join the prestigious Rs 100 million tonnes-plus loading league’ of Indian Railways.

SCR stated that its freight traffic would touch 103 million tonnes (mt) in 2011-12, 6.8 per cent more than the freight loading compared with 96 mt handled in 2010-11.

So far, only three zonal railways in the country — South East Central, East Coast and South Eastern Railways - have registered a freight traffic of over 100 mt a year.

Interestingly, SCR could reach the 100 mt milestone this year despite disturbances on account of the separate Telangana movement resulting in rail rokos affecting freight movement and coal transportation from state-owned Singareni Collieries Company Limited.

In fact, there had been a significant freight traffic growth in SCR in the past three years. It grew from 73.8 mt in 2008-09 to 85.9 mt in 2009-10 and 96.2 mt in 2010-11. Freight earnings account for about 70 per cent of the total earnings of SCR.

According to an SCR press release, its freight earnings in 2010-11 stood at Rs 5,084 crore. This year, it is expecting to earn Rs 5,764 crore through transportation of goods.

Coal constitutes around 52 per cent of the total loading in SCR. Cement, fertiliser and foodgrains are the other major constituents. This year, it loaded an average of 85 rakes a day (coal - 37 rakes, cement - 22 rakes, foodgrains - 7 rakes and fertilisers - 7 rakes), compared with an average loading of 77 rakes per day last year. Thus, SCR loaded an additional 8 rakes everyday in comparison with last year.

The freight loading in SCR was stated to have got a critical impetus from the traffic offered at the two ports on eastern coast of the zone- Krishnapatnam and Kakinada. Last year, it loaded and unloaded over 7 mt at Krishnapatnam and 5 mt of material at Kakinada port. Imported coal and fertilisers besides granite are the major constituents of rail-borne traffic from these ports.

Keeping in view the future traffic potential, SCR said it was taking steps towards capacity expansion and upgradation of the requisite facilities for loading and unloading activities.