Railways to start time-bound freight trains this year

Railway minister Suresh Prabhu has proposed the introduction of time-bound freight trains - container and parcel - besides expanding the freight basket of Indian Railways, rationalising the tariff structure and building terminal capacity in order to reverse the trend of declining modal share of freight trains.

At present, the freight basket of Indian Railways is dominated by 10 bulk commodities which enjoy a share of around 88 per cent. Indian Railways should look beyond these to expand revenue base, the minister said.

He said a full-fledged market study is being undertaken and detailed supply and demand scenarios, service level and infrastructure requirements will be assessed so that an action plan to re-capture that traffic through either containerisation or new delivery models, eg, Roll-on Roll-off, will be developed and implemented.

Network capacity limitations do not allow Railways to run time-bound freight trains, but from this year a time-bound freight container, parcel and special commodity trains will be started on a pilot basis, he said.

He also said that the container sector would be opened to all traffic barring coal and specified mineral ores and part-loads would be permitted during the non-peak season. All existing terminals/sheds would be granted access to container traffic, where considered feasible.

He said that the current tariff structure of Indian Railways has led to out-pricing of freight services. A review of tariff policy will be undertaken to evolve a competitive rate structure vis-a-vis other modes, permit multi-point loading/unloading and apply differentiated tariffs to increase utilisation of alternate routes.

He said Railways will also look at the possibility of signing long term tariff contracts with key freight customers using pre-determined price escalation principles, which would provide predictability of revenues to Indian Railways and of costs to customers.

Dedicated Freight Corridor
The Dedicated Freight Corridor project, the largest infrastructure project in the country, is gaining momentum, the minister said, adding that it is proposed to take up three cporridor projects, which include the North-South connecting Delhi to Chennai, East-West connecting Kharagpur to Mumbai and East Coast connecting Kharagpur to Vijayawada.

He said, it is proposed to put these three projects on high priority to ensure structuring, award and implementation in a time-bound manner through innovative financing mechanisms including PPP. Almost all the contracts for civil engineering works would have been awarded before the end of the current financial year, he said, adding that since he assumed office, contracts worth Rs24,000 crore have been awarded, against Rs13,000 crore worth of contracts in the last 6 years.

Given the emphasis on rapid expansion of freight business, he said, it is essential to build more dedicated freight corridors for increased traffic with consequent benefits for the economy and environment.