East Coast Railway (ECoR) carried 108.19 million tonne of freight, registering a growth of 10.8 per cent, during the ongoing fiscal till January 2013 as against 97.62 million tonne during the same period of last financial year, railway officials said.
During January 2013, ECoR loaded 12.66 million tonne freight against 10.46 million tonne in January 2012, which is 21.1 per cent more than last year.
“This is 8 per cent more than the target fixed by Railway Board. The Board had set a target loading of 11.73 million tonne for the month,” said an official.
With the spectacular freight loading performance, ECoR was on course for overhauling the budgetary target of 130 million tonne during the financial year by a handsome margin.
Coal loading at Paradip Port at an average of nine rakes per day and 5.7 rakes per day at Dhamara Port, and iron ore loading at Kottavalasa—Kirandul Line at an average of 15.2 rakes per day created a record of best ever for any January in the railway.
The highest point in loading coal from MCL/Talcher, ECoR achieved the best ever performance in loading of coal at Talcher at an average of 35.3 rakes per day touching the magic figure of loading 40 rakes per day, on many days, which was unprecedented, officials said.
ECoR carried 73,928 additional passengers in January this year only by running of special trains and augmentation of coaches in regular important trains originating from its jurisdiction towards different destinations.
A total of 4,43,636 additional passengers were carried till December 2012 in the current financial year.