RailEnquiry

VISAKHAPATNAM: Despite the Maoist factor and natural disasters like landslides and floods dogging the Waltair Railway Division's top grosser Kothavalasa-Kirandul (KK) line every year, the division has been able to notch a 7.5% rise in cargo handing for the first quarter of 2013-14.In spite of losing 28 days to disruptions on the line out of the total 90 days during the first quarter, the division was successful in handling 13.62 million tonnes of cargo as compared to 12.67 million tonnes during the corresponding quarter of last fiscal, officials of the Waltair division said. In the first quarter of last fiscal, the line saw 24 days of disruptions.This has been possible due to the strategy of the Waltair division to run the rakes only during the daytime on days when they had to suspend night transportation due to fear of Maoist attacks. While the freight transport was completely disrupted for nearly 10 days out of these 28 days, during the remaining days when there were night traffic restrictions, they ran the entire daily quota of 13 rakes during the daytime in a bid to make good the losses and meet the total freight handling target of 59 million tonnes this fiscal.The 454-km long KK line from Bailadilla mines in Chhattisgarh to Vizag is the lifeline for industries in Vizag as it transports iron ore for Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd's Visakhapatnam Steel Plant and few other steel units in the neighboring states even as a chunk of the iron ore is exported via Vizag port. A single day's disruption on the line, which is dedicated to the transport of iron ore, costs the Indian Railways nearly Rs 5 crore.

The Waltair division has been stationing its empty rakes at Jagadalpur every morning and running the goods wagons from there to Kirandul in the daytime and returning with iron ore the next morning, sources said. The Waltair division has chalked out the plan jointly with NMDC ( National Mineral Development Corporation), which has improved the sidings at Kirandul by giving more room to load the ore in a speedy manner.

The Waltair division authorities have their fingers crossed that the same strategy will pay of in the current quarter as well because in July too the KK line has seen 17 days of disruptions by way of night restrictions, forcing the authorities to run all the 13-14 rakes during the day.

However, things may be tougher during the end of July and early August as the Maoists gear up to observe Martyrs week from July 28 to August 3 when the services may be completely disrupted, said sources in the division.

Though the Waltair division authorities have been able to make up for disruptions on the freight front, the sole passenger train on the KK line -- Visakha-Kirandul passenger, that is the only mode of transport for railway employees, NMDC employees and other passengers has resulted in a harrowing time for passengers as it has been running till Jagadalpur only.