September 10, 2020: Southern Railway has identified the potential for the movement of containers by rail from New Mangalore, according to John Thomas, General Manager of Southern Railway.
Addressing presspersons through a virtual conference, he said that the Southern Railway has been successful in moving edible oil cargo from Panambur in New Mangalore to various destinations in the eastern and northern parts of the country during the post-lockdown period. This cargo was being moved by road till recently.
Stating that the business development units at the divisional and headquarters level have been trying to partner with various customers to move maximum quantity of freight by rail, Thomas said there is potential for the movement of more coal cargo and containers by rail from New Mangalore.
Agreeing with him, Neenu Ittyerah, Principal Chief Operations Manager of Southern Railway, said the potential containerised cargo will add to the existing fertiliser and coal cargoes being loaded from New Mangalore.
As far as loading from Mangaluru is concerned, Southern Railway loads its trains mostly from New Mangalore Port. She said that Southern Railway loads around 60 rakes of fertilisers and 10 rakes of coal a month from New Mangalore.
Stating that the Southern Railway is confident of sustaining this level of traffic, she said it is hopeful of getting at least two rakes of edible oil a month.
Overall freight loading
Giving the overall freight loading figures of Southern Railway zone, Thomas said it loaded around 10.61 million tonnes of freight traffic during April-August 2020 as against 13.40 million tonnes in the corresponding period of the previous year.
He said the loading for fertiliser, raw materials for steel plants, and foodgrains was slightly above the target for the year.
Shortfall in the overall freight loading figures is mainly on coal loading, which was less by 2.22 million tonnes during the period. The demand from power houses came down as the power production was less during the April-August 2020 period when compared to the same period of 2019, he added.
Source: Business Line
