Tata Steel to spend Rs 330 cr on transport facilities at iron ore mines

Installing railway rapid loading system at Joda and Noamundi.

Santanu Sanyal

Kolkata, Sept. 2/2009

Tata Steel is spending an estimated Rs 330 crore to boost transport and logistics-related facilities at its iron ore mines at Joda (Orissa) and Noamundi (Jharkhand).

About Rs 150 crore is being spent at Joda on installing a railway rapid loading system being imported from the US, creating full rake handling facilities and setting up new railway siding and acquiring stackers and reclaimers for more efficient handling of lumpy ore as well as fines.

Right now, on an average, three-and-a-half rakes of ore loaded at Joda every day and the figure is estimated to rise to seven to eight following completion of the expansion programme entailing doubling of production from the present four million tonnes to eight million tonnes annually in two years from now.

However, there is no full rake handling facility at Joda with the result a rake is now split into three for loading purpose. This is a tardy process which, it is felt, must be dispensed with as the production doubles.

Turnaround time

Also, the turnaround time has to be improved. At present, the rake-in-rake-out time is five hours which, the Railways insists, must drop to three hours.

There is a further proposal to shift the existing railway siding to a new place in view of the projected rise in traffic. The new site has been identified and the work is in progress, according to official sources.

At Noamundi, about Rs 180 crore is being spent on acquiring rapid loading system, also from the same US firm, and installing a bedding and blending plant to be complete with stackers and reclaimers. The daily average loading at Noamundi is about six to seven rakes now, to go up to nine to 10 rakes in two years. There is full rake handling facility for loading fines but not for lumpy ore. For loading lumpy, a rake has to be split into two.

New system

Under the new system to be in force in February next year, it should be possible to have full rake loading facility also for lumpy ore.

All these measures, as the officials point out, are aimed at reducing detention and improving the average turnaround time of rakes in the mines, as insisted by the Railways.