ECoR emerges as the first zone to facilitate 150 MT freight in 2020-21

Carrying 150.86 million tonnes of freight, the East Coast Railway (ECoR) emerged as the first zone in the country to cross the 150 MT-mark in the current fiscal year.

The ECoR facilitated 144.25 MT of freight traffic from 1 April 2020 to 31 December 2020. This included 80.50 MT of Coal, 19.50 MT of Iron Ore, 12.44 MT of Iron and Steel, 5.25 MT of raw materials for Steel Plants, 5.16 MT of fertilisers, 2.21 MT of container, 1.93 MT of food grains, 1.95 MT of Petroleum Products, and 14.77 MT of other commodities. The Railways had carried 18.36 MT and 20.53 MT of freight in December 2019 and December 2020 respectively. It may be noted that the ECoR recorded an increase of 11.8 percent freight in December 2020 when compared to the previous year.

From 1 January 2021 to 10 January, 2021, East Coast Railway has carried 6.58 MT of freight, registering a growth of 15.6 percent from the corresponding period of last year, i.e. from 1 January 2020 to 10 January 2020. The ECoR had loaded 5.69 million tonnes of freight traffic in the aforementioned period in 2020.

In order to achieve this loading figure, East Coast Railway has utilised 9945 wagons per day in December 2020 as against 8864 wagons during the corresponding period of last financial year. Similarly, up to the end of December 2020, East Coast Railway has utilised about 7899 wagons per day from 1 April 2020 and aims to load more rakes in the future.

Despite the lockdown and lesser workforce in industries and mineral units under the East Coast Railway jurisdiction, the authorities had utilised the manpower and achieved the feat with rigorous planning and coordination with the respective government sectors and industries.