Railways to carry Marble, Bamboo among other new Goods

Railways to carry Marble, Bamboo among other new Goods

New Delhi: With its revenue from freight dipping, Indian Railway is planning to venture into new markets like transporting bamboo, marble, automobile and agri-products to ramp up freight income. Railways transported 1,101.76 million tonnes of goods as against the target of 1,107 million tonnes in the 2015-16 fiscal, a shortfall of 5.24 million tonnes, an official said. As per the plan, the public sector behemoth will explore the possibility of transporting bamboo, marble, automobile, agri-products among 40 others goods which are generally carried via roads.

Blaming the fall in the loadings on global economic scenario, a senior Railway Ministry official said, “Freight demand is always impacted by the international market. Since the global market was not in the upswing, it affected the loadings in the last fiscal.” Besides, the official said, the transportation of traditional goods like coal and fertilisers is being affected by various factors. The freight is crucial for railways as it accounts for two thirds of its revenue. Railways have been dependent on only few commodities for freight income like coal, cement, steel, fertiliser, foodgrains, iron ore, and petroleum products. We are working on the strategy to diversify the freight basket by bringing more commodities into the operation, the official said. Besides, Railways is also taking steps for rationalising freight rates, which were not hiked in the 2016-17 budget. The public carrier will also appoint Customer Manager to deal with clients in the new emerging market.

Sand-laden bogies seized at Bantwal Railway station

Mangaluru: Officials of the Department of Mines and Geology of Dakshina Kannada seized six bogies containing sand that was to be transported illegally at Bantwal railway station on Wednesday. Based on a tip-off cops raided the railway station and seized sand-laden bogies of a goods train. Railway officials said they have all necessary documents to transport the sand but failed to produce them. “We have also found around 10 loads of sand stored outside the railway station and an investigation is on,” a cop added.

Source:RailNews