Southern Railway Registers Increase in Originating Freight Loading

CHENNAI:
Freight traffic essentially serves the revenue of Southern Railway. Southern Railway loaded 14.85 Million Tonnes during April-August, 2018 surpassing Railway Board’s target by 12% and registering a growth of 35% as compared to last year’s loading of 11.01 MT during the corresponding period. Amongst the commodities which contributed to this performance are Coal, raw materials for steel plants, Iron & Steel, Iron Ore, cement and Gypsum.
Major Commodities
Ø Coal loading constituted 57% of the total freight loading during the current year.
Ø Coal Loading to Power Houses : Out of the total coal loading of 8.48 MT during April-August 2018, 54% of the coal has been loaded to Power Houses viz., TANGEDCO (TN State Power House), ITPCL (IL&FS Energy and Tamil Nadu Power Company), Udupi Power Corporation Ltd. and TAQA Neyveli Power Company. An increase of 1.03 MT of coal loading to these power houses has been recorded during April-August, 2018 compared to the corresponding period of last year.
Ø Dolomite & Limestone loading at Chennai Port by M/s.Jindal Steel Ltd. For their Steel Plant at Vijayanagar, Tornagallu has registered a sharp growth of 92%. 0.94 MT has been loaded during April-August, 2018 compared to 0.49 MT during the corresponding period of 2017-18.
Ø Loading of Iron & Steel also witnessed growth as 31 rakes of 80,000 tonnes of finished steel was loaded by M/s Jindal Steel Works from their Plant in Salem out of which 40,000 was moved to Chennai Port for export and the rest was moved to Northern India.
Ø Iron Ore to the tune of 0.27 MT was also loaded by M/s Jindal Steel works Salem Plant compared to 0.17 MT last year recording a growth of 59%.
Ø 0.2 MT of Gypsum has been loaded during Apr-August, 2018 compared to 0.01 MT during the last year registering a growth of 200%.
New streams of traffic
Ø 0.43 MT of Petroleum Coke produced by BPCL at Irumbanam has enhanced the freight basket of Southern Railway supplementing as a new stream of traffic.
Ø For the first time, 10 Container rakes of Cement were moved by M/s Dalmia Cements from their Ariyalur Plant to Tuticorin for export through M/s.CONCOR.
Ø Out of the total Gypsum loading of 0.2 MT during April-August, 2018, 7 rakes of 28000 tonnes was loaded from the new siding at Kamarajar Port, Ennore for the first time since opening of the siding during May 2017.