Imported cargoes have piled up at Major Ports following seasonal and monsoon-related delays affecting the availability of rail wagons.
Haldia is reportedly holding about three lakh tonnes of coal imported by Tata Steel, NTPC and SAIL. Haldia requires 10-12 rakes a day, but the availability is just around eight, a spokesman for Haldia Dock said. South Eastern Railway that serves Haldia Dock admitted that it was unable to provide more than eight rakes a day. Of these, four are empties and the other four that bring iron ore and coal to the Port are for export.
Since the number of export rakes cannot be increased at will, making available more trains to clear the accumulation would mean moving additional empties to the Dock. This would entail additionalcost to the Railways and is, therefore, ignored as a solution. An East Coast port, for instance, is sitting on about two million tonnes of imported cargo, mostly coal. The evacuation has become a problem due to inadequate rakes. The requirement is 11-12 rakes a day, but the availability is just 7 or 8.
Normally, the rakes arriving at this Port with exportable goods are used for loading import cargoes.Earlier, seven-eight iron ore rakes used to arrive at the Port every day. The number has now dropped to four, partly due to the slump in overseas demand for ore and partly due to the state government’s restriction on loading of iron ore rakes.
Though the Railways often places empty rakes to facilitate evacuation, it does represent a cost for it. At a West Coast port, about five lakh tonnes of fertilisers are waiting to be evacuated. Against the daily requirement of 8-10 rakes, the availability is five. The problem, it is feared, may worsen in the coming months when more fertiliser shipments arrive. Fertiliser evacuation is an annual problem for Port authorities. What is worse, the imported fertilisers arrive in bulk, and are bagged and then loaded on to the rakes. The bagging and loading process is usually done by labourers from other states, mostly from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Now there is an acute shortage of labourers.
Source: Exim News Service, New Delhi, 10 August 2010