Railways sets up auto hub near Chennai; starts bar-coding of unreserved tickets

Railway minister Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday inaugurated the Indian Railway's first Auto Hub in Walajabad in Chennai Division of Southern Railway, which, he said, is part of the efforts to further increase railway revenue. He also announced the inauguration of a bar-coding system for unreserved tickets to improve passenger safety.

Out of these two services, bar coding of unreserved tickets was very recently announced by the railway minister in his railway budget last week and this has been implemented as an immediate action on Rail Budget 2016-17.

Speaking on the occasion, the minister stated that the two services will help improve passenger amenities and increase freight revenue of Indian Railways. He said the Railways has adopted multiple strategies, including reach to multi commodity cargo, to generate revenue.

''The Rail Auto Hub on Walajabad, Chennai is our initial step and Indian Railways is further working on how to get more auto transportation into the railway track,'' he said, adding, ''Railways cannot rely upon only one business partner and this is the way to do business and thus reach to cargo is essential to generate/increased freight revenue.''
 
The Walajabad station is located near the major auto units of Oragadam, Sriperambadur and Singa Perumal Kovil areas, which are having the manufacturing facilities of Nissan,  Hyundai, Ford and Daimler Chrysler.

Spread over 5,000 sq meters, this hub will have loading capacity of 300 four-wheelers. This hub would cater to over 1 million units of 4-wheelers being produced every year in this area.

Walajabad auto hub, would act as an ideal distribution centre for the inward traffic of Tata, Honda, etc, converging for distribution into Tamilnadu and adjoining states, including Pondicherry.

While hinterland traffic is the prime segment, Indian Railway hopes to capture export traffic, which will move to ports of Chennai and Ennore.

The hub has seamless road connectivity of 4/6 lanes to the production and consumption centres.

Adequate lighting and fencing for security is also being developed.

At present, 4 per cent of automobile traffic is through Indian Railway and approximately Rs100 crore revenue has been collected during financial year 2015-16 so far through this traffic.

The target is to increase the share of Railways to around 20 per cent by 2026, he said.

Prabhu also stated that to improve passenger amenities, while speaking on the service of bar coding of unreserved ticket through thermal printer.

He said the new bar coding system on unreserved train tickets will stop possible fraudulent activities, which will help in more railways revenue.

He said that Indian Railways will ensure that we get proper revenues that are due to the Railways and also ensure that there should be better governance which will ultimately help railway passengers.