Bhubaneswar: The East Coast Railway (ECoR) has achieved highest ever freight loading in Indian Railways in financial year 2021-22.
The ECoR loaded 232.13 million tonne (MT) of freight in 2021-22 fiscal, surpassing the last year’s 204.90 MT, registering an incremental growth of 13.28%. The Bhubaneswar-based zone earned Rs 23,012.32 crore from freight traffic in this fiscal which is also the highest in Indian Railways.
During 2021-22 fiscal, the ECoR carried 52.8 MT of freight from Talcher, 21.6 MT from Paradip, 21 MT from steel plants, 15.2 MT from Dhamara, 14 MT from Visakhapatnam, 13.7 MT from KK Line, 9.9 MT from Gangavaram port, 8 MT of aluminum from its jurisdiction and 20.6 from other areas.
The record freight loading has been attributed to performance of ECoR’s three divisions of Khurda Road, Waltair and Sambalpur. During the period, 152.46 MT of freight was carried from Khurda Road division, 66.88 MT from Waltair and 12.79 MT from Sambalpur.
ECoR general manager Archana Joshi and principal chief operations manager Pramod Kumr Jena have congratulated the team involved in freight loading. Close monitoring and supervision, dedicated and sincere work force have contributed to the performance, they said.
They further said the zone made the achievement despite the challenges of COVID pandemic, slump in demand of export of iron ore and coal crisis. Besides, ECoR has run 44 Oxygen Special Trains towards different destinations of the country during the pandemic.
ECoR is followed by South East Central Railway (SECR) with 212.37 MT and South Eastern Railway (SER) with 195 MT in freight loading during the period.
