Bhubaneswar, April 6: East Coast Railway (ECoR) has emerged as the largest freight loading railway zone of Indian Railways in 2015-16.
ECoR loaded 173.49 million tonnes of freight compared to 161.91 million tonnes achieved in the corresponding period previous year and registered an increase of 7.1 per cent, its officials said.
On the earnings side, ECoR earned about Rs 15,978.28 crore which is 14.13 per cent more than the corresponding period of previous financial year, they said.
In coal loading, ECoR carried 79.4 rakes per day from its jurisdiction against 72.7 rakes per day in last fiscal.
The coal loading from Talcher was 40.8 rakes per day followed by Visakhapatnam Port 8.7 rakes, Gangavaram Port 7.7 rakes, Paradeep Port 11.7 rakes, Dhamara 9.5 rakes and at other places 1.1 rakes per day during 2015-16.
In iron ore loading, it loaded 14 rakes per day in 2015-16 – 5.2 rakes per day from iron ore belts under Khurda Road Division and 8.8 rakes day from KK Line under Waltair Division.
“This performance is despite pro-longed blockade/bandh by Maoist activities in Kottavalasa-Kirandul (KK) Line and less demand from International Markets for Exports,” an official release said.
Altogether East Coast Railways has carried 131.2 rakes loading per day from its jurisdiction against 122.4 rakes per day in 2014-15 financial year. These include coal, iron ore, cement, food grains, POL and other commodities, they said.
