The slowdown in industrial production has become evident from the pattern of freight movement on the railways. The usual peaking of freight movement in October-March has not happened this year.
Coal loading on the Eastern Railways increased by nearly seven per cent between April to November against the corresponding period last year.
However, loading of most other items declined by nearly six per cent.
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Although loading by the Eastern Railways showed a five per cent improvement - a loading of 51.204 million tonnes this year against 50.800 million tonnes in the same period last year - the railways can no longer depend on increased coal loading till March as the industry's demand too has started reflecting a declining trend.
Coal movement to steel mills has come down from 4.064 million tonnes to 3.892 million tonnes during the eight months. Movement to washeries has dipped from 1.556 million tonnes to 1.222 million tonnes.
Stone chip movement too has shown a slide with much of the traffic to Bangladesh stopped. Bangladesh had been importing large quantities of stone chip from India for construction of its bridge over the Yamuna. Since construction is nearing completion the demand for stone chip had ceased.
There has also been a significant decline in the movement of several petroleum products from the Haldia refinery. Bookings for black oil tank wagons for the past several weeks has almost been nil. These special wagons usually carry furnace oil.
The refinery is diverting its furnace oil production to other parts of India. However, the benefit has gone to the water transport companies. The railways do not know what to do with the specialised black oil tank wagon fleet.
Improved loading performance during the period under review was achieved with a reduced wagon holding. Against its holding of 70,541 wagons in April-November 1996, this year it dropped by four per cent to 67,544 wagons.
This was possible due to some innovative measures in the loading strategy. For example, the Easrern Railway is using BOBR wagons with 'crack running' programme.
This means continuous operation of the wagons over 4,500kms without a check in between. The system, introduced in February last, ensures better utilisation of the rolling stock after intensive preventive checks.
The railway has also arranged loading of coal without detaching the locomotive. This is being done in collaboration with Coal India which helps in quick loading of coal at selected collieries. This results in better rake utilisation.
The railway's earning from originating goods traffic went up from Rs 1,984.96 crore to Rs 2,532.56 crore during the eight months.
Passenger movement on the Eastern Railways also improved from 36.3 crore to 37.92 crore during the period, a 4.42 per cent increase.
This helped to register a 13.08 per cent rise in earning from passenger traffic - from Rs 439.29 crore to Rs 496.78 crore.