RAILROAD2 4 CARGOTALK J U N E 2 0 1 5

Suggesting a roadmap for growth

QHow did the Committeeapproximate growth in

freight traffic between 9and 15 per cent despitethe growth recorded atfour per cent during thelast four years?

A Committee was constitutedby the Ministry of Railways to identifyfactors and issues affecting growthof traffic (freight and passenger) andsuggest a plan of action for TrafficOptimisation in the short term (during2015-16) and long term (2018-19).Various segments of growth in freightand passenger traffic were criticallyexamined, that is on the freight sidegrowth of originating loading, NTKMsand freight earnings were discussed.

The Committee made a thor-ough analysis of traffic patterns andtransportation output of IndianRailways for the last few decades,particularly, during the last fiveyears. The Committee assessed thepotential traffic demand for rail trans-portation of various sectors basedon the projection given by the coresectors. Projections from coal sec-tor alone indicate increase in coalproduction from around 750 milliontonnes in 2014-15 to 1500 milliontonnes by 2020. Assuming thatthese projections will materialise,this commodity alone should be ableto generate coal transportationdemand for Indian Railways to morethan 1000 million tonnes by 2020.The growth potential of IndianRailways assessed by theCommittee for originating freightloading is more than 1500 milliontonnes by 2018-19, which is muchbelow the estimates indicated inIndian Railways Vision 2020 docu-ment of December 2009.

The Committee has given thecaveat that more than nine per centgrowth would be achievable only

with the removal of short-term andlong-term identified bottlenecks andby bringing about recommendedsystem improvements and policychanges. The great leap forward of15 per cent growth will come only

after commissioning of Eastern andWestern DFCs by the end of 2019.

QWhat are thebottlenecks that have

hindered the growth offreight traffic till date?

The Committee has made arealistic examination of the exist-ing bottlenecks on the ZonalRailways that impacts the growthof traffic. These have been categorised as Network Capacity Management, TerminalCapacity Management, Wagon

& Loco Management, Pay Load Management and CrewManagement. The long-term

bottlenecks are identified aswagon augmentation, junction andterminal augmentation, inductionof wagon stocks (both public andprivate sector), availability of locomotives and induction of crew.

QWhat changes arerequired in rolling

stock and infrastructuremaintenance practices toachieve the potentialestimated by Committee?

The recommendations for sys-tem improvement are primarily thosewhich carry forward innovative meas-ures already being taken by theZonal Railways. The recommenda-tions in this regard are two-fold, i.e.,meant for policy initiatives by theMinistry of Railways and those to beundertaken at Zonal Railways level.Higher capacity and higher speedwagons have to be inducted in the

system on priority, maintenancepractices, especially, routine overhauland periodical overhaul maintenancehas to be looked into in the backdropof limited capacity in the workshopsand the examination cycles mayhave to be extended for longer peri-ods for improving wagon availabilityand reducing wagon turnaround.

QHow long would ittake for the capacity

of the existing terminalsto be augmented andprivate freight terminalsto come up?

Capacity of the existing termi-nals is being augmented by powerhouses, industries and container

operators. It has been recommendedthat development of private freightterminals should be encouraged andthe policy should be liberalised. Thishas also been announced in theRailway Budget by the Minister forRailways.

QWhat are the stepssuggested by the

Committee forliberalisation of Wagoncapacity scheme?

Wagon capacity scheme shouldalso be liberalised to enable invest-ments in wagon leasing and inductionof wagons. The Committee has sug-gested induction of wagons throughPPP arrangements with PSUs andalso from private sector in large num-ber for catering to the demands oftraffic in specified circuits.

QDoes Indian Railwaysplan to make use of

satellite services forsafety of cargo too?

Indian Railways has to moderniseits systems to achieve the desiredgoals. Use of satellite services for

operations, safety and other IT applica-tions has become essential. Satellite-based information could enable auto-matic capture of train movement, data for automatic control charting, accuratepassenger information through NTES,real time information on freight trains,eliminating requirement of track sideequipment, train tracking applicationand even its potential use for in-cab signalling along with its use as an auxiliary collision avoidance systemand various other extended benefits.Satellite service would certainly takecare of safety of cargo through livetracking. The Committee has recommended that the Indian Railways should move forward in thisdirection on a proactive basis.

ABEER RAY

A Committee formed by Indian Railways submitted a document to the Railway Ministerpointing out bottlenecks that have hindered its growth. Mohd Jamshed, AM(C&IS),Chairman, Committee on Traffic Optimisation, MoR divulges details about the roadmapwould enable it to clock the desired growth rate within a stipulated timeframe.

Mohd JamshedAM(C&IS), Chairman, Committee on TrafficOptimization, Ministry of Railways

The Indian Railways earned`9,461.47 crore from freight trans-portation in April 2015 as com-pared to ̀ 8,071.18 crore during thesame period in 2014, an increaseof 17.23 per cent. The freight earn-ings for last month were made upof `4,623.77 crore through trans-portation of 46.07 million tonnes(MT) of coal, `573.12 crore fromferrying 8.99 MT of iron ore forexports, steel plants and otherdomestic users and ̀ 872.99 croregenerated by way of carrying 9.38MT of cement, informs RailwayMinistry data.

The national transporteralso earned `570.17 crore fromcarrying 3.28 MT of food grains,`502.08 crore from 3.47 mt ofpetroleum, oil and lubricants,`554.51 crore from 3.35 MT of pigiron and finished steel from steelplants and other points, `475.05crore from 3.43 MTof fertilisers,`178.65 crore from 1.64 MT ofraw materials for steel plantsexcept iron ore, `445.84 crorefrom 3.72 MT via container serv-ice and `665.29 crore from 6.48MT of other goods.

Indian RailwaysApril’15 freightup by over 17%

A network of temperature-controlled warehouses and distri-bution facilities would be built byIndian Railways across the countryto extend its cold chain infrastruc-ture. Container Corporation of India(CONCOR), Central WarehousingCorporation (CWC) and CentralRailside Warehouse Company(CRWC) have been entrusted withthe start up and management ofnew cold storage infrastructure.Minister of State for RailwaysManoj Sinha said, “Under a pilotproject, CONCOR, CWC andCRWC were asked to provide infra-structure at five locations in additionto Azadpur in Delhi to encouragedevelopment of facilities for the setting up of cold storage and temperature-controlled perishablecargo centres, as well as develop-ing agri-retail outlets to be allottedto different parties through PublicPrivate Partnership model.”

The statement also added,“CRWC has been allowed a maximum of two years of gestationperiod from the date of executingindividual agreement with Railwaysfor construction and operationalisa-tion of the warehouse complexes.”

Indian Railwaysexpands cold chaininfrastructure