Indian Railways is the backbone of the country's logistics sector. During 2020, when most of the activities were under lockdown, Indian Railways was providing relentless services in Freight transportation in the country. Indian Railways achieved highest ever loading continuously in Sept, Oct, Nov and Dec 2020.

Indian Railways has embraced a “Freight on Priority” policy by pushing for an aggressive customer-centric approach to expand the freight carried not only from the traditional segments but also by attracting new customers to its fold. 

In its commitment to take level of customer services to new heights, Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister for Railways, Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution has launched today (i.e. 05.01.2021) a Freight Business Development Portal as one stop solution for all the needs of freight customers.

The Minister said that Indian Railway is an invisible thread which connects the length and breath of India. During the lock down, Railway showed it's resolve in delivering the essential supplies to the nation in most challenging times and keep national supply chains running. The new portal will be game changer in ensuring in ease of doing business with Railways. The portal will ensure that best services are available to the clients. The Minister said that last 6 years have seen an extra ordinary development in all spheres of Railway operations under the leadership of PM. Indian Railway is getting future ready. The commitment of Railways to further improve the services is unflinching. Greatness of Railways would not just be in being better than someone else but being the BEST.

The portal can be accessed by logging on to Indian Railways web site

https://indianrailways.gov.in/#

Or

https://www.fois.indianrail.gov.in/RailSAHAY

First of it's kind dedicated Freight portal will ensure that all operations stay customer centric, reduce the costs for  logistics providers , provide online tracking facility for suppliers and also simplify the process of goods transportation.

Freight Business Development portal has been designed to replace physical processes with online ones to minimize the need of human to human interaction.  The Portal has been specially designed and developed keeping in mind the varied needs of all existing as well as new customers with focus on ease of doing business, to bring more transparency and to provide professional support. 

Benefits to the Customers

The Portal has been specially designed and developed keeping in mind the varied needs of all existing as well as new customers with focus on ease of doing business, to bring more transparency and to provide professional support. 

The event was attended by Chairman & CEO Railway Board, heads, business leaders  and officials of multi modal logistics service providers, commodity sectors like foodgrains, steel, auto , salt etc and other stake holders .

The industry participants congratulated the Railways for taking the initiative to offer various  incentives to   commodity and goods suppliers during covid times. They said that the new portal is great step in line with PM's digital India mission and would not only greatly improve the ease of freight operations but would also enable reduce the costs as well.

The distinguishing features of the Portal are as below:

a)         New to Rail

This portal welcomes all the prospective customers of Indian Railways, introducing our freight business and listing various benefits, guiding them to search the most suitable terminal with detail of various terminal facilities and logistics services available, assisting them to choose the right wagon, presenting the expected charges and estimated time for their planned freight transportation. A new customer can register on this portal and place demand for wagons in the most convenient way.

b)         Existing Customers

Our prestigious freight customers are our most valuable assets, we’re committed to offer them the best-in-class services, the personalization and vital information that plays a key role in their business developments, sustenance and expansions. The personalized dashboard of Freight Business Portal shall bring you the single view, which gives you access to your entire business with Indian Railways, your outstanding indents, on-run consignments, status of various interactions, facility to apply for various services and raising concerns. Live Track your on-run consignments through our GIS views, single click applications for various services: discount schemes, diversion, rebooking, demurrage and wharfage waivers, stacking permissions and many more. Get to know about rake allotments and pendency/maturity of indents at various freight terminals.

c)         Commodity Pages

The portal has commodity pages on major commodities transported by Railways: Coal, Minerals and Ores, Food Grain, Flour & Pulses, Cement & Clinker, Chemical Manure, Iron and Steel, Petroleum products, Container services, Automobile and more.

One can find most suitable terminals suitable wagon, freight charges, expected transit time and  incentive schemes for  a selected commodity,  that handle your commodity near you, in your district or state. Introducing you with different types of wagons that carry your commodity and their loading preferences, presenting variety of incentive schemes to facilitate your logistics requirements and flexibility of two-point loadings/unloadings.

d)         Tools and Services

Your business is of utmost importance for us, we value your time and are committed to offer you the frequently accessed tools and services to provide direct access to vital information.

Get access to various tools and services for planning your optimum freight transportation with Indian Railways. Our rate slabs for various commodity movements, wagon catalogue, terminal selector, smart calculator and track & trace. Information on various important services like timetabled movements, mini rake services and approved two point rake combinations are just a click away now.

e)         Logistics Partners

Indian Railways invites and welcomes the partnerships in Indian Railways freight operations across the country. You may join our network through investments in Private Sidings, Private Freight Terminals or Railways Owned Goods Sheds to make railways, a part of your supply chain.  Investments in rolling stock could fetch you numerous benefits like assured availability and incentives in freight charges. We invite aggregators, truckers, warehouse owners and labour providers to offer their services for our 9000+ freight customers at 4000+ freight terminals.

f)         Professional Support

Indian Railways is always committed to provide professional support to our valued customers.  The customers can contact Indian Railway officials on phone or in writing. The customers can send their suggestion, query or complaint to Indian Railways through contact us option. For every request received in writing, a unique request ID is sent to the customer to track the status of the request.  Indian Railways will be happy to serve queries of the customers.

It is important to note that Freight figures continue to maintain the high momentum in terms of earnings and loading in the month of December 2020 for Indian Railways. On mission mode, Indian Railways' Freight loading for the month of December 2020 crossed last year’s loading and earnings for the same period.

In the month of December 2020, Indian Railways loading was 118.13 million tonnes which is 8.54% higher compare to last year’s loading for the same period (108.84 million tonnes).In this period Indian Railways earned Rs. 11788.11 crores from freight loading which is also Rs. 757.74 crores (6.87%) higher compare to last year’s earnings for the same period (Rs. 11030.37 crores).

Indian Railways has taken series of steps taken by to boost Freight loading like setting up of Business Development Units (BDUs) at Railway Board, Zonal Railway and Divisional levels. Multi-disciplinary teams from BDUs have been reaching out to customers to attract new business by providing compelling value-for-money logistics solutions. The BDUs have scored several early successes by attracting new business from customers who had never used rail in the past. Also, a number of concessions/ discounts are also being given in Indian Railways to make Railways Freight movement very attractive.

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DJN/MKV