Railways deploys 86% of open wagons for coal transportation

The Railways has deployed 86% of its open wagons to transport coal to various power plants in the country, to counter the electricity crisis in the country.

Out of the 1,31,403 BOXN or open wagons in its fleet, the Railways is employing 1,13,880 for coal transportation, as part of a strategy developed by the national transporter in discussion with the ministries of coal and power.

Data indicates the Railways has about 3,82,562 wagons, out of which 1,31,403 are open wagons and 3,636 of which need repair as of May 2.

Every day, the Railways is loading an average of about 28,470 wagons with coal to satisfy the demand from power plants. Usually, a coal train gets up to 84 wagons.

The Railways has also employed an innovative method of using long-haul trains, running three to five trains together at 122 locations in states like Odisha, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh to expedite transportation.

Around 18 critical points have been identified in the transportation of coal in marathon meetings with top officials of the three ministries.

This comprises the detention of rakes during coal loading and unloading, which is taking over 10 days in some circumstances.

The situation is such that the Railways is even putting into action about 40-50 damaged wagons in work to move coal.

Officials said the Railways have also raised the operating duration of rakes by 2,500 km to expedite the movement of coal rakes.

This means that the open rakes which were earlier treated for wear and tear after every 7,500 km are sent to the garage now after 10,000 km, providing them more running time.

The trains, which have a loading capacity of about 71 mt, are now carrying at least a tonne of additional load.

The steel industry is also facing a lack of BOXN rakes for the imported coking coal movement from ports like Paradip and Dharma to steel plants.

In 2021-22, the Railways transported 653 million tonnes (mt) of coal, around 20.4% higher than in 2020-21. About 46% of the railways' total freight cargo in 2021-22 included coal.

Of the 653 mt of coal transported by the railways, around 540.4 mt was to thermal power plants. The remaining was to foundries of various manufacturing units.

About 95% of coal transported by the railways comes from Coal India's reserves, while the remaining is imported, as per the railway ministry data.

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