ECoR zone loads highest freight in Indian Railways during lockdown

BHUBANESWAR: The East Coast Railway (ECoR) zone has loaded the highest freight traffic amongst all the zones in Indian Railways during lockdown in the country. It carried 48.5 million tonnes (MT) of freight in 12,680 trains between March 22 and June 30.
Despite lockdown and shutdown of industrial activities, the zone has loaded 42 MT in the first quarter this year against last year's 50 MT in first quarter.
During lockdown and coronavirus outbreak, the Indian Railways Ministry has ensured uninterrupted supply of essential commodities throughout the country. In essential commodities, Indian Railways carried food grains, fruits and vegetables, milk products, edible oil, sugar and salt, medical equipments and medicine, PPE Kits and other grocery items apart from fertilizer, petroleum products and coal.
Sources said ECoR carried 27.06 MT of coal in 7,100 trains from its jurisdiction between March 22 and June 30 that is for 101 days. Out of this, 16.14 MT of indigenous coal from Talcher area in 4,157 trains and 10.92 MT of imported coal from different ports under ECoR jurisdiction were transported to various power houses and industries across the country.
ECoR has taken it as a challenge and ensured continuous supply towards different destinations. During this period, ECoR carried 0.95 MT of food grains, especially rice to different states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar and Jharkhand by using 333 trains.
This zone has transported 1.2 MT of fertilizer to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal in 470 trains. Petroleum products were transported from ECoR jurisdiction towards various places in 279 trains, iron ore in 1268 trains, iron and steel products in 895 trains, cement in 41 trains. "Altogether 48.5 MT of freight were loaded in 12,680 trains between March 22 and June 30," said ECoR official sources.
In the first financial quarter of 2020-21, ECoR has loaded about 42 MT which is 82 per cent of the last year in the same period. "Because of lockdown, many of the industries were closed and demand in market went down. But we managed to load this much of goods which is a marginal drop from first quarter of last financial year," said senior railway officer.