October 13, 2020: Indian Railways eyes to move one million fly ash in the coming months! The East Coast Railway (ECoR) zone of the national transport is planning to move at least one million tonnes of fly ash by rail between the period of October 2020 and March 2021. Recently, according to an ANI report, Vidya Bhushan, General Manager, Business Development Unit (BDU) of the East Coast Railway zone met the representatives of integrated steel plants, thermal power plants, cement plants and aluminum smelter plants, in a virtual meeting. During the meeting, it was advised to the representatives of industries to take advantage of the 40 per cent rebate that is granted on the movement of fly ash by Indian Railways. According to the East Coast Railway zone, it is estimated that at least one million tonnes of fly ash can be transported by railways.
Meanwhile, Piyush Goyal-led Indian Railways recently registered a huge increase in freight loading. In the first four days of this month, an impressive 15 per cent jump in freight loading has been registered by the national transporter, as compared to the same period last year. From 1 October 2019 to 4 October 2019, the national transporter had loaded freight of 11.06 Million Tonnes, while in the first four days of October 2020, Indian Railways had loaded freight of 12.77 Million tonnes, thereby registering a 15 per cent growth in freight loading.
A few days ago, in a bid to ensure consolidation of Indian Railways’ coal business, the Railway Minister had a meeting with top officials of the Power and Coal Sector. Last year, out of 1210 Million Tonnes of freight loading, the coal loading was of 587 Million Tonnes in total. In September 2020, an amount of Rs 9896.86 crores has been earned by the national transporter from freight loading which is Rs 1180.57 crores higher compared to last year’s earnings for the same period.
Source: Financial Express