Is East Coast Railway (ECoR) set to dislodge South East Central Railway (SECR) as the number one freight-loading zonal railway?
So it seems, if the recent performance of both the railways is any indication. According to Indra Ghosh, General Manager, ECoR, in May, the average daily loading of ECoR was 6,061 wagons (eight-wheelers), which was 49 wagons more than the average daily loading of SECR (6,012) during the month.
“We’re doing even better in the current month (June). So far in the current month, on an average ECoR has loaded 6,401 wagons a day against 5,980 by SECR," Ghosh observed.
“Right now, ECoR is the largest freight-loading zonal railway of the Indian Railways, the slot reserved for SECR for the past 10 years.”
Interestingly, Ghosh is also the General Manager of SECR, the position he has been holding for the past couple of months since the then GM was transferred to Railway Board at Member (Mechanical).
“I’ll take some more time to set things right in SECR," he told Business Line .
“Coal availability is a problem but I still believe SECR daily loading could be stepped up by another 10 rakes. My problem is that SECR being the additional charge I cannot spend more than two days a week at Bilaspur (the headquarters of SECR)”.
Ghosh declined to attribute the improved performance of ECoR to any single factor.
“It is a system improvement covering several measures over a period of time," he said pointing out that in November 2011, ECoR lagged behind SECR loading by 1,500 wagons per day. “We’ve not only bridged the gap but exceeded it," he said.
Inquiries reveal coal loading at Talcher mines improved to 34/35 rakes a day against 30 previously. As for loading of imported coal, Paradip port posted 30 per cent growth while loading at Dhamra port dropped.
“There are no indents pending for Dhamra, whatever little we’re doing there is almost on day-to-day basis," said a spokesman of ECoR. Interestingly, the loading of iron ore for domestic consumers too has improved at Nayagarh (5.5 rakes a day) and Daitari (20 rakes a month). The loading of pellets at Parjanpur too has increased, it was pointed out.
SECR sources, however, were of the view that in terms of number of wagons handled per day, ECoR might be ahead of SECR at present but in terms of volume of traffic handled, the gap between the two might not be wide.