Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu Inaugurated Indian Railways Round Table Conference on “New Alternatives in Wagon Design: Reaching out to Customers”.

Minister of State for Railways & Minister of State for Communications (Independent Charge) Shri Manoj Sinha and Minister of State for Railways Shri Rajen Gohain were specially present to grace the occasion. Member Rolling Stock Railway Board Shri Ravindra Gupta, other Railway Board Members and senior officials were also be present on the occasion.

 

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu said Indian Railways is trying to get back its modal share in freight segment.  Indian Railways new Freight policy has rationalised tariffs. Indian Railways is trying to work on partnership with its freight customers. The new alternative wagon design is another step towards it. New Wagon Design as per the need of customers is a win win situation for both, customers & railways. Customers can modify / alter the wagons as per the need & railways freight share can increase substantially. Commodity basket of Indian Railways has also been diversified. It is our effort to capture the unexplored segment of agriculture & fisheries to increase freight traffic.

 

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Railways Shri Manoj Sinha said, “With growth in economy, the potential for growth in the non conventional sector is expected to be very high.Many of the schemes launched by Indian Railways have already led to investment by the industry in purchase of dedicated wagons.From the point of view of growth in non conventional sector, the most promising sectors today are steel,automobiles,fly ash/cement & container. We call upon the industry to come up freely with the constraints they face in increasing transportation of more finished steel through rail & their expectations regarding new types of wagons design & modification/innovations required to the existing types of wagons design.We also invite the industry to deliberate collectively and come up with the most efficient solution for rapid growth in transportation.

 

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Railways Shri Rajen Gohain said that It is a good initiative to bring all stakeholders on one platform so that each one can share their rich experience to explore new wagon design as per the requirement of transportation models. Thus, this conference would result in active dialogue between consumer industry & Railways.

 

About Conference

For a very long time, the bulk of the freight traffic being carried over Indian Railways has been transported in the conventional open & covered wagons.  In the past two decades, attempts have been made to design and operate commodity-specific wagons.  This has helped in attracting traffic from other sectors to railways.  More and more customers are looking at the IR network for an optimal solution for their transportation needs.  Some of the examples are automobile-carriers, containers, special wagons for steel, wagons for carrying cement, fly ash, clinker etc.  In all these sectors, Indian Railways has presently limited presence.  In each of these categories, some designs of wagons are available and are being used in select pockets.  Industry has gained a whole lot of experience while utilizing these commodity-specific wagons.

A lot of suggestions for changes and improvements in wagon design keep on coming up from time-to-time.  It was considered appropriate to bring all stakeholders on one platform so that the richness of their experience can be exploited for improvement in the existing wagon designs and associated transportation models.  This conference aims to bring together the customers, wagon owners, designers, wagon builders and the officials of the railways dealing with freight transportation.

As the outcome of this conference, it is expected that new innovative  ideas will come up, get discussed and formulated into actionable improvements in wagon design.  In addition, it will also set the roadmap for the wagon designers and manufacturers to provide appropriate freight stock for the benefit of the customers.

  The conference is planned to have 5 session, out of which the first inaugural session will introduce the topic after address by the Minister of Railways.  Subsequently, there would be four technical session as detailed below:

Conference Themes

Session-1

 AUTO CAR WAGON

·        Types of Auto car wagons operating on IR

·        Problems faced in loading and unloading of car

·        Possible improvements in existing design

·        Utilizing full potential of liberalized SOD of DFC

·        Possibility of versatile design for trucks, automobiles, two-wheelers and other vehicles.

Session-2

CONTAINER WAGON

·        Types of Container wagons operating on IR

·        Problems faced in loading and unloading

·        Future development required for higher axle load

·        Designs required for double stack operation

·        Operation of non-ISO and dwarf containers

Session-3

CEMENT/CLINKER/FLYASH WAGON

·        Types of Cement /fly ash/clinker  wagons operating on IR

·        Problems faced in loading and unloading

·        Other design issues

·        New designs for more optimal utilization

·        Versatile wagons capable of carrying cement, fly ash and clinker

Session-4

  STEEL WAGON

·        Types of Steel coil  wagons operating on IR

·        Problems faced in loading and unloading

·        Other design issues

·        Upgradation to 25t axle load

·        Development of versatile designs for all types of steel consignments

 

 

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