The shortfall in the supply of rake (wagons) by the East Coast Railway (ECoR) to various industries in the city has been hitting their production badly.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) representatives have been crying hoarse on the future of major industries like Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), Visakhapatnam port and thermal power plants like the NTPC, which are all in an expansion mode, with the ECoR authorities failing to meet the demand. Past president of CII, Visakhapatnam chapter, G. Sambasiva Rao, said at a recent meeting that the ECoR was according priority to allocation of wagons to the Paradip port, though there was not much demand, ignoring demands of the Visakhapatnam port. He apprised MP K. Haribabu, who is also state president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, of the injustice being done by ECoR to Waltair Division and the need to have the railway zone headquarters in Visakhapatnam. He also underlined the need to complete the doubling of the Visakhapatnam – Raipur line for speedy movement of cargo.
The location of the headquarters of the proposed new zone, in Visakhapatnam is also important in view of the huge demand for wagons from the industries located in the city. The headquarters call the shots when it comes to allocation of rakes and they are doing it according to their whims and fancies, says Railway Zone Saadhana Samithi convener JV Satyanarayana Murthy.
The rake (wagons) supplied by the railways to Visakhapatnam Steel Plant from January to August this year is only 1,007 as against the requirement of 1,202, indicating a shortfall of 195. The average capacity of each rake is 4,000 tonnes and the shortfall in the receipt of iron ore material from Bailadilla is 7,80,000 tonnes, according to official sources. The shortfall between April 2013 and March 2014 was 57 rakes, indicating a shortfall of saleable steel products of 2,28,000 tonnes through rail transport.
The shortfall in the supply of rakes to VSP during the first five months of the present financial year is 33.
