Indian Railways' Journey with Coal 1855-2023

Table Of Contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Foreword
• Table of Contents
• List of Maps
• List of Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Journey from 1855 to 1902
• Development of Coal Mining in India before Introduction of Railways
• Coal Exploration in India
• Issues in Coal Mining
• Demand for Coal and Transportation Constraints in early nineteenth century
• The Need for Railways
• Setting up the Edifice: Policies for the Development of Railways in India
• Administrative Policies for the Development of Railways
• Terms of Guarantee
• Engineering, Management and Legal Issues
• Challenges Faced in Construction of Railway Lines
• Formation of Companies to Run the Railways
• Legislations to Regulate Railway Operations
• Impact of Operation of Multiple Railway Companies
• Administrative Supervision of Railway companies
• Standards of Construction of Railway Lines
• Issues in the Management and Development of the Railways
• Increase in Coal Production and Expansion of the Rail Network in Eastern India
• Methods of Coal Mining
• Expansion of East Indian Railway (EIR) Network
• Expansion of Railway Network to other Coal bearing areas
• Other Minor Coalfields
• Development of Other Major Railway Lines and Impact on Overall Movement
• Coal Production
• Evolution of Tariff Policy
• Phases in Evolution of Tariff Policy
• 1855–1875
• Growth of Coal Traffic
• Impact of High Tariff in India
• Lower Tariffs
• 1876–1902
• Poor Coordination between Railway Companies and its Impact on Costs and Railway Movement Patterns
• Rising Demand for Coal and Tariff Policy
• Incentive for Railway Companies to Own Coal Mines
• Cost of Coal and Operational Costs
• Growth in Coal Production, Transportation and Reduction in Tariff
• Impetus for change in tariff structure
• Attempts at Inter Railway Coordination
• Reduction in Tariff
• Further Attempts at Tariff Reduction and Inter railway Cooperation
• Continuing Demands for Tariff Reduction
• Reduction in Rates and Movement of Coal via Calcutta Port
• Opening of the Jharia Coalfield
• Coal Movement Patterns
• Production and Consumption of Coal
• Trade and Fiscal Policy
• Status of Technology on Railways 1890–1901
• Freight Wagons
• Braking Systems
• Locomotives
• Safety
• Expansion of railway Network
• Chapter 2: 1902–1947: Growth amidst challenges
• Administrative Changes
• Major Changes in Tariff Structure
• Growth in Coal Production and New Railway Lines
• Uneconomic Mines
• Rising Coal Production
• New Mining Areas
• Reduction in use of Imported Coal by Railways
• Cost Control: Ownership of Coal Mines by Railway Companies and Impact on Coal Market
• Efficiency of Train Operations
• Speed of Trains, Signalling, Wagon Design, Locomotives
• Need for Larger Wagons
• Locomotives
• Signalling
• Investment in the Railways and Industry: Impact on Railways
• Trends in Production and Policies for Movement of Coal up to 1918
• Equity in Supply of Wagons for Coal
• Impact of the First World War
• Distribution of Coal during War: Administrative Measures
• Development of Industries in India after 1918
• Use of Coal by Railways and Other Industries
• Major Changes in Policy: 1919–1925
• 1925: A Year of Landmark Developments
• Coal Industry: Structure, Production, Prices and Transportation (1919 to 1945)
• Structure
• Mechanisation of Coal Mines
• Prices and Production of Coal
• Impact of the Great Depression on Coal Industry
• Transportation and Distribution of Coal (1919–1945)
• After the War
• Chapter 3: 1948–1980: A New Beginning: Planned Development
• Creating Conditions for Industrial Development: 1948–1980
• Railways
• Railway Zones
• Nature of Indian Railways
• Status of Indian Railways in 1951
• Demands on the Railway System
• Future Programme for Railways
• Coal
• Assessment of Coal Resources
• Consumption of coal
• Administrative and Legislative Actions for Increasing Coal Production
• Coal Production and New Legislations
• Distribution of Coal: Coordination with Railways
• Demand for Coal
• Development Plan for Railways
• Expansion of Railway Capacity
• Spatial Distribution of Coal Production and Other Issues
• Freight Equalisation Scheme for Railways
• Rolling Stock
• Decade of the 1960s
• Planning for Coal and Railways
• Investment Planning for Railways
• Strengthening Railway Infrastructure: New Assets
• Upgrading Track
• Wagon Design
• Systems of Coal Loading: Issues in Loading New Wagons
• Coordination with Railways for Distribution of Coal
• Allotment of Railway Wagons for Coal Movement
• Performance during the Third Five Year Plan
• Railway Finance: Higher Dividend Payment
• Power Sector
• Major Changes in Government Policy
• Nationalisation of Coking and Non-Coking Coal
• Coking Coal
• Non-coking Coal
• Grading of Coal
• Planning for Movement of Coal for Industries
• Imposition of Emergency and thereafter
• Efficiency of Railways
• New Wagons: Problems of Transition
• The Problem of Wagon Couplings
• Chapter 4: 1981–2002: The Era of Liberalisation
• Performance during the Sixth Plan
• Targets for the Seventh Plan
• Funds for Investment
• Performance During Seventh Plan
• Management of Change: Changes in Systems of Coal Loading and Rail Transportation
• Impact of Block Rake Operations: Closure of Small Goods Sheds
• Introduction of New and Heavier Wagons by Railways
• Coal Loading Using Payloaders
• BOBR Wagons
• Railways: Systemic Issues Impinging on Optimum Utilisation of Assets
• Slow Growth of Track Network
• Growth of Traffic and Line Capacity Issues
• Slow Freight Train Speeds: Hauling Capacity of Locomotives, New Wagons and Configuration of Traffic
• Recommendations of SLC: Stable Movement Matrix and Maintenance of Wagons
• Rapid Growth in Coal Demand from Power Sector: Impact on Coal Industry and Railways
• Location of Power Plants
• Finance: Internal Generation of Resources by Railways
• Economic Liberalisation and Changes in Policies: 1991–2002
• Target and Plan for Coal Sector
• Financial Support to Coal India Ltd.
• Coal Production
• Performance of the Railways
• Reduction in Financial Support to Railways
• Investment Choices: Gauge Conversion
• Investment Choices: New railway Zones
• Continuous Increase in Freight Tariff to Garner Resources
• Liberalisation: Partial Deregulation of Price of Coal
• Nineth Five Year Plan at the Turn of the Century
• Strategy for Financing Railway Investment and Loading Target for Railways
• Funding of Railway Infrastructure by Coal Industry
• Coal Production Targets
• Coal Beneficiation
• Setting up of Non-coking Coal Washeries
• Coking Coal Washeries
• Coal Demand and Output
• Performance of Railways
• Progress of Railway Projects for Coal Movement mentioned in Nineth Plan
• Other Issues Mentioned in Nineth Plan
• Expert Committee
• More Liberalisation of Coal Marketing Policies
• Comments on Policies of Railway in Plan Documents
• Chapter 5: Paradigm Shifts (2003–2023)
• New Approach
• Dedicated Freight Corridor
• New Policy for Coal
• Developments during the Eleventh Plan (2007–12)
• Coal Production and Demand for Coal
• Grading of Coal on basis of Gross Calorific Value
• Shortage of Coal
• Expert Committees
• Beneficiation of Coal and Pit Head Power Plants
• Captive Coal Mines
• New Initiatives
• Funding Capital Investment
• New Environmental Norms for Power Stations
• Expansion of Railway Network
• Commercial Mining of Coal
• First Mile Connectivity Project
• Power from Renewable Sources
• Chapter 6: Looking Ahead
• Future Planning for Indian Railways
• Appendices 1 to 7
• Appendix 1
• Appendix 2
• Appendix 3
• Appendix 4
• Appendix 5
• Appendix 6
• Appendix 7
• Bibliography
• Index

Ashim Kumar Maitra

Indian Railways’ Journey with Coal 1855–2023

Changing Policies and Outcomes

Chennai · Berlin · Bruxelles · Lausanne · New York · Oxford

Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2025004108

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Maitra, Ashim Kumar, 1954- author

Title: Indian Railways’ journey with coal (1855-2023) : changing policies and outcomes / Ashim Kumar Maitra.

Description: Oxford ; New York : Peter Lang, [2025] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2025004108 (print) | LCCN 2025004109 (ebook) | ISBN 9781803745671 paperback | ISBN 9781803745688 ebook | ISBN 9781803745695 epub

Subjects: LCSH: Indian Railways | Railroads--India--History | Coal trade--India--History | Railroads and state--India--History

Classification: LCC HE3300.I53 M35 2025 (print) | LCC HE3300.I53 (ebook) | DDC 385.0954--dc23/eng/20250403

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2025004108

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2025004109

ISBN 978-1-80374-567-1 (Print)

ISBN 978-1-80374-568-8 (E-PDF)

ISBN 978-1-80374-569-5 (E-PUB)

DOI 10.3726/b22023

© 2025 Peter Lang Group AG, Lausanne (Switzerland)

Published by Peter Lang Pvt Ltd, Chennai (India)

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All rights reserved.

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In memory of

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for their unconditional love and nurturing

Foreword

The three keywords in the book title – Coal, India, Railways – are the hot topics now in climate change discourse, the most complex problem humanity is trying to navigate for safe survival on earth now and in the future. Research output on the solution space with scientific evidence to show what is feasible, possible and doable is growing in leaps and bounds. The main message from global discourse is that it is possible to manage climate change within safe limits of planetary boundary for sustainable human living, but some disruptive choices are to be made by the current generation of decision makers now. Besides technology and innovations, two major identified ‘enablers’ of such change are policy plus institutions and redirection of financial resources to drive the desired change at scale and within a reasonable time. International negotiation in Conference of Parties (COP) of UNFCCC (United National Framework Convention for Climate Change) has agreed in recent past to eventually phase out unabated fossil fuel use as extraction and combustion of it are the major causes of GHG emissions. The globally agreed strategy is to start with phase down of coal use and finally close all unbated coal-based power plants and reduce use of fossil fuel in transportation of freights and passengers by promotion of railways where ever feasible.

In the context of current debate, the book is a ‘treasure-chest’ for those who want to understand why coal phase out/down is seen as a socio-political-economic struggle for India. Book is written with rich evidence support and let us not forget the contribution comes from Ashim Kumar Maitra who is a practitioner served both Indian Railways at the top managerial rank. He was also advisor to the chairman of Coal India Ltd. and was an Independent Director of West Bengal Power Development Corporation. So, he has seen the dynamics of the three sectors during his professional career. He was a trained economist and is an expert on transportation and logistics. The book is substantially new and one of its kind for the Indian context with global relevance because the book provides a chronological narrative of how policy priority, policy design and institutional structure for coal, railways and power sector in India co-evolved in phases with changing national priorities as decided by the federal government keeping in view both the political economy and economic growth. Past contributions in the thematic area have either covered only one sector coal industry, Indian railways or Indian power sector. Mr. Maitra consulted in preparation of this book all such references. However, his value-added contribution is in taking a systemic approach of cross sector collaboration, their coevolution and changing phases and current situation. It is a first attempt that dared to cover with authority such vast temporal scale for India to make the narrative comprehensive. The narrative starts from the colonial period 1855 and extends up to 2023. There is no such comprehensive rich source of evidence-based written narrative and insights on the subject in one place. The author has toiled and written down the facts in such a way that it will make life easy for all future researchers trying to understand transition challenges and policy design for a sustainable future of India and for rest of the world.

Mr. Maitra explains why coal and railways developed concurrently right from the beginning as coal was the only fuel for railways and distribution of coal was not possible without railways. After independence the government specifically planned for their development to foster industrial growth. Over the long period of time covered by this study despite regime changes from colonial period to independent India and political regime changes in the latter period coal-railways nexus grew to support India’s industrialization and then to provide access to modern electricity to boost the economic growth. It is noteworthy that systemic approach did not overlook how with cheap liquid fuel invention boosted road transport and how politically that was embraced in India and how through incentive design and market-based instruments freight movement was shared by railways and road transport with former almost exclusively keeping the monopoly in coal transport to meet emerging electricity demand. Mr. Maitra ends the book with a futuristic view and raises a pertinent research question how coal-rail-power nexus might be dwindling in future and can this transition be done proactively by adopting policy-institution nexus to avoid unwanted socio-political-economic struggle.

He shows that without policy makers playing a catalytic role the railways-coal-power sector nexus in India could not have boosted the economic growth. This is true for both the colonial period and independent India, although beginning was with railways-coal nexus. This presentation reestablishes the human agency and reminds me of the age-old proverb where there is a (political) will there is a way.

Foundation of Maitra’s argument rests, however, in the view that policy and institution can be very strong catalyst in shaping the economic developmental of a nation like India. He argues that policy and institutional reforms become more productive by paying explicit attention to changing market conditions, developmental paradigm and challenges for humanity. This also helps in positioning a country in a global context.

I have served the energy economics, resource and environmental economics, climate change economics and policy space for more than forty years. I believe that this book is extremely timely contribution and will surely help inject new insights and clear perspective for researchers and policy makers not only in India but has potential to inform the global discourse on shaping the smooth transitions for sustainable future for coal rich countries like India. The hope lies in his narrative around how political will can drive and bend and twist and redirect policy, institutions and finance which current climate change solution space developers are looking for.

Besides technology and innovations, two major identified ‘enablers’ of such change are policy plus institutions and redirection of financial resources to drive the desired change at scale and within a reasonable time. As it accepted globally that it is now time for roll back of unabated coal use appropriate priorities, institutions, incentives, compensations, upskilling of manpower, promotion of a portfolio of appropriate new technologies and related infrastructure assumes priority. Keeping an eye on growing geopolitics of materials and resource in near future there cannot be any global technology determinism or technology winner for various scientific reasons as well. India must make a prudent choice in the best interest of its people because demographically India will have the largest productive population globally in two decades time. So, while deciding on the resilient infrastructure, priorities and human capability building how ‘creative but disruptive choice set’ includes various low/zero GHG emitting technologies and in that how coal-railway-power sector nexus gets reconfigured will determine prosperous India’s development trajectory.

The book will be of considerable interest and use to the authors of global assessment reports and development community including academia, decision makers like national governments, bilateral and multilateral funding agencies, civil societies engaged in developmental actions in the region and will generate more interest for taking forward more extensive studies in many other countries to advance deeper regional debate, struggle and understanding of way forward.

Joyashree Roy

Distinguished Professor and Director SMARTS center, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand.

Former Professor of Economics, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India.

Table of Contents

Foreword

List of Maps

List of Tables

Preface

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Journey from 1855 to 1902

Chapter 2: 1902–1947: Growth amidst challenges

Chapter 3: 1948–1980: A New Beginning: Planned Development

Chapter 4: 1981–2002: The Era of Liberalisation

Chapter 5: Paradigm Shifts (2003–2023)

Chapter 6: Looking Ahead

Appendices 1 to 7

Bibliography

Index

List of Maps

1. Year 1903: Major Coalfields of India and adjoining railway lines for coal movement.

2. Year 1939: Map of railways in India showing the years in which construction of the lines connecting the coalfields were completed.

3. Map of the Golden Quadrilateral and Two diagonals.

4. Year 1990: Map showing major coalfields and adjoining railway routes.

5. Map of Dedicated Freight Corridor.

6. Year 2015: Map of coalfields and coal routes showing the railway routes under intense pressure.