BHUBANESWAR: East Coast Railway (ECoR) has achieved a new milestone in freight handling in 2022-23 by loading 241.51 million tonne (MT) of freight from its jurisdiction. With this, it topped the zones in Indian Railways.
ECoR had loaded 232.13 MT in the 2021-22 financial year. It is also the only railway zone, which has crossed the feat of 240 MT milestone in the current fiscal. The Ministry of Railways had set a target to load 240.6 MT in 2022-23.
With an average of about 10,000 wagons per day, the railway zone has performed remarkably after many challenges and adverse conditions on loading and train operations like public agitations, workers issues in loading and unloading, Maoist activities and other railway construction activities.
Sources said, 149.64 MT of coal was the major commodity carried by ECoR, followed by 25.56 MT of iron ore, 19.33 MT of iron and steel, 7.79 MT of raw materials for steel plants and 5.9 MT of fertiliser.
While 155.34 MT of freight was loaded from Khurda Road division, 69.63 MT of freight was loaded from Waltair division and 16.54 MT from Sambalpur division. Two divisions - Khurda Road and Waltair have obtained the third and sixth positions respectively among 68 divisions of Indian Railways.
During the last financial year, ECoR had contributed 15 per cent of total loading by Indian Railways. South East Central Railway, which loaded 214.58 MT in 2022-23 is the second highest loading zone while South Eastern Railway achieved a loading figure of 202.61 MT to be placed at third position.
ECoR general manager Manoj Sharma congratulated the workforce for the achievement. The efforts and cooperation from all stakeholders including collieries, ports, steel plants, cement, petroleum companies and food corporation of India have also helped to achieve this feat, he said.
