Date:29/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/05/29/stories/2006052900330600.htm

Back SWR looks to de-bottlenecking iron ore freight corridor

A. J. Vinayak

A proposal is under study for doubling the Hospet-Hubli-Londa-Vasco line. This is important for iron ore and coal movement where constraints are being felt. Mr T. N. PERTI, GM, SOUTH WESTERN RAILWAY

The Hubli-headquartered South Western Railway Zone — which was formed on April 1, 2003 after amalgamating the reorganised Hubli Division from the South Central Railway and the Bangalore and Mysore divisions from the Southern Railway — has made rapid strides in both freight and passenger traffic after its formation.

In a recent interview to Business Line, the SWR General Manager, Mr T. N. Perti, spoke about the performance of the zone in freight movement and its plans to improve traffic.

Excerpts from the interview:

The SWR is one of the recently formed zones. How has its performance been?

Three years after the formation of this railway zone, the freight traffic has definitely picked up. We achieved a loading of 38.05 million tonnes in 2005-06 against 31.74 million tonnes the previous fiscal — a jump of 20 per cent.

Our originating earnings in goods traffic stood at Rs 1,921.39 crore the last fiscal against Rs 1,221.03 crore the previous year. This jump of 57.36 per cent is unprecedented. Of this, we earned around Rs 100 crore in the last fiscal from the premium loading scheme. This is the maximum earning by any railway zone on the premium loading scheme.

Of course, now the scheme does not exist. As for the passenger traffic, we handled 8.21 crore passengers during 2004-05. In the last fiscal, the number went up to 9.68 crore — a near 18 per cent growth. Our earnings increased from Rs 515.74 crore to Rs 583.92 crore.

What is the projected volume of freight for this fiscal?

Last year we did 38.05 million tonnes. The (Railway) Board is projecting 50 million tonnes. It is a very stiff target, almost 31.5 per cent higher.

This takes into account the loading from Panambur on the Hassan-Mangalore line, which was commissioned for goods traffic from May 5. Our main loading is iron ore. Though this a difficult target, we have to put in our best effort to reach it.

What facilities are you planning to improve freight movement?

A proposal is under study for doubling of the Hospet-Hubli-Londa-Vasco line to increase the throughput of trains.

This is an important freight corridor for iron ore and coal movement where constraints are being felt.

We are working on the concept of a warehouse next to the loading and unloading terminal where the customer can bring his goods in advance and keep them. The customer does not have to pay for detention of wagons, and the wagons can be used better.

On the wagon maintenance side, we are building a new depot at Hospet. Hospet is going to be a big centre for maintenance of wagons. It is the premium sector for catering to the iron ore segment.

What facilities have you provided at the loading and unloading points?

We have introduced various facilities, such as better lighting during loading by installing high-mast light towers. We are also concreting the surface.

These are at all the loading points, including Tinaighat, Ramghad, Swamihalli, Toranagallu, Bellary Cant, Hospet, and Munirabad. We have two important unloading points — Tinaighat and Sanvordem.

In addition, the satellite goods terminals at Bangalore and Mysore are being expanded. Additional facilities for maintenance of locomotives, coaches and wagons are coming up in Hubli, Bangalore, Mysore, Vasco da Gama and Hospet, and facilities for maintenance of track machines at Bangalore.

Is there any problem in rail transportation towards the export points?

We have limitations in the lines towards Goa. The primary cause is the very arduous ghat section with several gradients, including from Castle Rock to Kulem. The number of safety stipulations to be observed causes delays.

At every station, the train stops, and going downhill is very slow so that the driver does not lose control. With safety measures, we have increased the speed from Castle Rock to Kulem section from 25 kmph to 40 kmph; for good train to 30-40 kmph. With this, some additional capacity is generated. But it is not enough. The line has to be doubled.

Do you have rail connectivity to Karwar, an important minor port in the area?

No. But we have a line sanctioned from Hubli to Ankola. This line is supposed to be a shared project with the State (Karnataka) Government, though the order on that has not yet been signed.

2004-05, 86 per cent of the exports were iron ore. The figure stood at 81 per cent the last fiscal.

What is the level of detention at port level and mine-head level?

That keeps varying. The port detentions at Vasco last around twenty-and-a-half hours. And our detention at loading points is around 18 hours.

Tell us about the zone's performance in parcel movement.

We do not want to be left behind in the parcels segment. Parcel earnings have gone up to Rs 22.37 crore in 2005-06 as against Rs 14.72 crore the previous year — an increase of 52 per cent.

We attracted major customers such as TVS Motors, MRF Tyres, Duraline, Nestle and Cadilla.

These companies have started using the Railway parcel service at Goa and Bangalore. We are loading refrigerated vans for Nestle from Vasco-da-Gama to Delhi. All these increases would not have been possible in the normal cause. Wherever we had extra coaches, we used all of them.