High freight rates, rake shortage hit coastal coal shipping plan

Inadequate rake supply continues to haunt railways despite its numerous claims of intervention

The Union government’s plans to enhance coal transport and curtail coal demand-supply mismatch through coastal shipping mode are finding it difficult to take off. High rail freight rate for coal transportation from mines to ports and shortage of railway rakes at the ports have resulted in underutilisation of capacity at major ports, data accessed by Business Standard revealed.

Between 2015 and 2018, rail-sea-rail (RSR) freight rates for short distance movement on the Talcher-Para­dip and Enmore-Mettur circuits rose by over 75 per cent, creating major cost pre­ssures. A senior official said the increasing rates would prove to be an obstacle as viability