The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Southern Railway records 21% growth in freight traffic

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Tuesday, Oct 07, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Southern Railway records 21% growth in freight traffic

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: Southern Railway has achieved 21 per cent growth in freight traffic in the first half of the current financial year compared to the same period last year.

Freight loading from April to September this year stood at 16.8 million tonnes which was 9 per cent more than the target of 15.46 million tonnes fixed up by the Railway Board for the zone.

If the current trend of loading continued, the zone would achieve this year’s target of 32.5 million tonnes.

Loading had improved in all commodities with the exception of petroleum products. As against the movement of 2.28 million tonnes in the first half of last year, this year 2.19 million tonnes of petroleum products were moved.

The fall in the movement, according to Southern Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Neenu Ittyerah, was primarily due to shut down of the CPCL refinery at Manali here.

However, loading of petroleum products from Cochin refinery, which is in Trivandrum Division was up by 25 per cent

All divisions in the zone had achieved higher growth in different commodities with Palakad and Madurai divisions achieving 300 per cent and 200 per cent growth respectively in coal loading. The movement of coal from Mangalore Port to power houses in Andhra Pradesh contributed to this increase. Coal was also moved from Tuticorin Port to new steel plant at Salem.

Total movement of coal in the first half was 8.8 million tonnes as against 7.3 million tonnes during the same period last year.

The marketed traffic of steel from Salem Division crossed one lakh tonnes for the first time.

Cement movement

Cement movement recorded 2.19 million tonnes as against 1.46 million tonnes in the previous year. Tiruchi division had shown 90 per cent increase in cement loading from various parts of the State.

Loading in Chennai division had shown a 9 per cent increase in coal and a 13 per cent increase in container traffic.

Movement of other commodities are as follows: Fertiliser movement 1.16 million tonnes (1.10 million tonnes); Food grains 57,000 tonnes (40,000 tonnes); containers 71,000 tonnes (65,000 tonnes) and others 1.11 million tonnes (75,000 tonnes).

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