Indian Railways Transported 74,734 Coal Rakes in H1 CY19

Indian railways have supplied 74,734 coal rakes in total to various end-users during the first half of CY19 (Jan-Jun’19) at an average of 412.9 rakes/day.

Coal movement by rail had made a strong start to the year by delivering 13,531 rakes in the month of Jan’19. However, the count had gradually reduced over the period, eventually falling to its lowest mark in Jun’19.

It is pertaining to note that a railway rake approximately carries a load of 4000 MT coal, which varies based on its design and specification.

Coal and railways in India are heavily interdependent. Rail provides a fast and hassle-free mode of coal transportation for the customers, also being cheaper as compared to the road-mode. In turn, coal accounts as the major revenue-earner for the Railways’ freight operations.

Data provided by Indian Railways indicate that coal loading of 605.79 MnT in FY19, had accounted nearly half of the total revenue earning traffic recorded at 1221.39 MnT during the period.

Major Receivers of Coal Rakes:
Thermal power plants (excluding captive plants) had procured nearly three-fourth of the total coal rakes recorded in the six-month period.

Of the total quantity, India’s largest power producer, NTPC, had taken highest number of coal rakes for its plants’ operation, noted at 11,313.

Power gencos from various states had procured 24,195 coal rakes in total, during the 6-month period, with Maharashtra state power generating company (MAHAGENCO) emerging on top with 4,337 rakes.

A break-up of rakes supplied to various state gencos in H1 CY19 has been provided below:

Source: CoalMint Research

Rakes Taken by Major Non-Power Industries:

Among the non-power sector, highest quantity of coal rakes were delivered to SAIL, followed by JSW Steel, Tata Steel and Vedanta during the half year period.

Major Suppliers:

South East-Central Railways (SECR) was recorded as the busiest zone for coal deliveries, having dispatched 15,904 rakes during Jan-Jun’19 period.

However, the highest coal rake delivered from an individual rail division was noted from Dhanbad belonging to the East Central Railway, which had supplied 15,794 rakes. Bilaspur division from SECR came second with deliveries of 15,092 coal rakes.

Plans to Step-up Coal Deliveries via Railways:

Lower coal stock levels suffered by power plants in recent years essentially reflects logistics issues in terms of rake availability or rail infrastructure capacity rather than any issues regarding coal production.

In order to improve coal loading to plants in desired routes, CIL has envisaged procurement of 40 rakes of its own at nearly INR 700 Crores.

The coal company had recorded average coal loading of 236 rakes/day during FY19 which is expected to climb up to 400 rakes/day in the coming years as it plans to boost its production volume.

During the fiscal, two major rail links funded by CIL subsidiaries – Jharsuguda- Barpali- Sardega in Odisha and Tori – Shivpur in Jharkhand have become operational. While the company had also sanctioned Gevra Road to Pendra and Dharamjaigarh to Korba rail projects, under the flagship of CEWRL & CERL.