Transporting metallurgical coke to earn C Rly Rs4.8cr

Nagpur: At a time when Covid-19 has made a dent into railways revenues, the Nagpur Division of Central Railway has added a feather to its cap by tapping into a new commodity, metallurgical coke, which will help it earn Rs4.8 crore by hauling 10 rakes.
The business development unit (BDU) of Central Railway has added new traffic of metallurgical coke from the loading point at Wardha. “At the rate of Rs48 lakh per rake, we will earn Rs4.8 crore by loading 10 rakes from Uttam Value Steel Limited, Wardha, to Kakinada seaport, a distance of 808km,” said Krishnath Patil, senior divisional commercial manager (SrDCM). The first rake was dispatched on Wednesday.
Compelled to look into new business avenues in the aftermath of the pandemic, divisional railway manager (DRM) Richa Khare has been pitching for adding new commodities to the parcel section.
“Prior to adding metallurgical coke, we transported 14 rail milk tankers from Nagpur to Delhi. Each tanker contained 40,000-litre milk. We earned Rs 14 lakh from it. This has not only helped save time to ferry perishable commodity like milk but also saved money as compared to road transport,” said Patil.
During the financial year 2020-21, the Nagpur division earned over Rs130 crore by operating 407 rakes. This was done by tapping into commodities like dolomite, fly ash, automobile, iron slag, food grains (wheat, rice, maize), cotton husk, sugar, edible oil and cotton bales.
ACM (Goods) SG Rao said, “From April 1 to 30, 2021, we operated 35 rakes by transporting above commodities and generated revenue of Rs11.29 crore. Similarly, from May 1 to 23, we operated 25 rakes generating Rs7.50 crore.”
Last year, the Central Railway revived ‘Orange Kisan Rails’ after a gap of more than a decade. It has boosted the agriculture-based industry and helped farmers increase their income by transporting in an economical and time-saving mode.
Metallurgical coke is a porous, fissured, silver-black solid. It is an important part of the iron-making process since it provides the carbon and heat required to chemically reduce iron burden in the blast furnace to produce hot metal.
On the new commodity, Patil stated that most of the metallurgical coke is used in iron and steel industry processes such as blast furnaces, sinter plants, and foundries to reduce iron ore to iron. Over 90% of the total metallurgical coke production is dedicated to blasting furnace operations.