Efforts that started about 10 years back finally bore fruits for Central Railway’s Nagpur Division as it loaded full rake of Dolomite, a mineral found in Vidarbha, on October 5 from Kayar Goods Shed for Angul Station in State of Odisha. For division, the Business Development Unit (BDU) successfully captured another new traffic equivalent to coal in terms of weight but much more in earnings.

The significant aspect of the development is that in future Kayar is now going to remain on goods map of Railways as they look beyond coal to steam their future earnings. The division received Rs 62.54 lakh for loading of 59 wagons with the mineral. As per the policy of empty flow direction, Railways also provided rebate of Rs. 9.71 lakh to the party that booked the consignment, said S G Rao, Assistant Commercial Manager (Goods) and divisional spokesperson. New coal allotment policy has seen dwindling of long leads for Railways as Central Government trimmed the distance of coal block to power station by rejigging the allocation system. The aim was to cut down the generation cost by way of controlling transport expenses and it hit the Railway's revenue. Therefore, systematic efforts were undertaken to look beyond coal and policies were framed to capture road traffic.

So far Central Railway was loading Dolomite from Wani station, this is about 30 to 35 kms from Kayar. Now with Kayar the distance from mines of Dolomite is considerably reduced thus ensuring savings for transporters and also for parties engaged in loading of goods, said the field officials.

The mineral is meant for M/s Tata's Steel Limited plant in Odisha and recently the company floated a tender for supply of Dolomite and hence its presence in Vidarbha Region ensured CR got into picture. As Railways got wind about the matter, BDU team went full steam and contacted the party and explained to him the numerous benefits by transporting the Dolomite through rail head. In the meantime, Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Richa Khare along with senior officials including Sr. Divisional Operations Manager (Sr. DoM) Ashutosh Shrivastav and Sr. Divisional Commercial Manager (Sr. DCM) Krishnath Patil and Sr. Divisional Mechanical Engineer (Sr. DME) Laxmi Narayan and other senior officials discussed the proposal and formed strategy on how to go ahead. DRM also directed officials to share full details of various Railways schemes, especially wherein concessions are offered to dispatching parties and keep track of negotiations.

Armed with the mandate, BDU team successfully convinced the party and bagged the contract. Field officials of Railways are sure that the Dolomite quality of Mukutban is on quite higher side and Tata's are bound to continue its contract for future supplies.

Rao said there are many steel plants in Eastern coast of India and Railways are highly hopeful that Dolomite traffic from Kayar is bound to increase in future.