Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu inaugurated
following key freight sector initiatives today i.e. 02-03-17 at National Rail
Museum, New Delhi:-
1.
Policy of ‘Long Term Contracts’ with
major customers.
2.
Indian Railways Freight and Passenger
Business Action Plan -2017-18.
3.
Confirmation trial of Double stack
Dwarf Container Train under wire- a New Delivery Model.
4.
The demonstration run of Ro-Ro (Roll on
– Roll off) service across the National Capital Region- A Pilot project of
Indian railways for ‘ Green Transportation’ – to reduce road congestion and
improve environment.
Chairman, Railway Board, Shri A. K.
Mital, Member Traffic Railway Board Shri Mohd. Jamshed, other Railway Board Members,
General Manager, Northern Railway Shri R. K. Kulshreshta and senior
officials were also present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister of
Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu said that over the years, Railways share
in country’s total traffic has reduced substantially. Railways earns its two
third revenue from freight only and primarily from the transportation of eight
commodities. In the wake of Global slowdown, transportation sector is the
biggest sufferer. It has affected Railway’s freight earnings. However despite
these challenges, Indian Railways has done well to improve its freight loading.
During the last two years, Ministry of Railways has been constantly changing
its freight policies and rationalizing them in consultation with all
stakeholders with a view to attract more freight towards Railways. For these
changes, Indian Railways has adopted market oriented approach to make traffic policies.
These landmark reforms in freight policy are in line with the budget
announcements. Shri Prabhu called upon the stakeholders to respond to these
changes and honor their commitments. He said that with the improvement in
freight loading, everybody will be a winner, be it Railways, be it consumer or
be it the whole ecosystem. He said that Railway is working in line with the
Prime Minister’s broader development agenda. He said that the concept of Double
Stack Dwarf Container train is also a good idea as it will save time and will
be cost effective. Similarly, the concept of RO-RO services is also very useful
from pollution point of view, public health point of view and for speedy
transportation. He said that Ministry of Railways is addressing its
transportation policy in a holistic manner. The Minister said that off late the
Railway Ministry has taken various initiatives in the field of Non Fare revenue
and in saving fuel cost. We have fixed up a target of savings Rs 41,000 Cr in
next 10 years on energy front. Railways have taken massive plan of expansion
& capacity augmentation, Shri Suresh Prabhu added.
Chairman, Railway Board, Shri A.K.Mital
said that it is a big challenge to bring more traffic share to Railways. All
stakeholders need to work together to achieve this objective. Member Traffic,
Shri Mohd. Jamshed gave brief outlines of the Indian Railway’s Business Plan
2017-18.
On this occasion, Centre
for Transportation Research and Management (CTRAM) organised an Eighteenth
National Rail Transport Seminar with the theme : ‘Transforming IR’s Freight
Services: Initiatives launched and the Road Ahead’ and the inauguration of ‘Key
Freight Sector Initiatives’. The seminar consisted of two technical sessions.
First technical session was chaired by Shri Ambrish Gupta, AM(Traffic), Railway
Board and the speakers were Shri S.N.Prasad, Director Marketing, Coal India
Ltd., Shri Raman, Director Technical, SAIL, Shri Shivaji,Executive Director,
Sales & Distribution, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Shri Raghu Dayal, former
Managing Director, Concor & presently in AITD. Second Technical session
was chaired by Shri Sanjiv Garg, AM(Catering & Tourism), Railway Board and
the speakers were Shri Kaliprasad, Chairman, Railway Co-ordination Committee,
Dr P.S.Gahlaut, Managing Director, Indian Potash Limited, Shri Anil Gupta,
Former Managing Director, Concor and Shri Sarbojit Pal, Consultant, TERI.Vote
of thanks was proposed by Shri R.K.Tandon, Executive Director, CTRAM.
Salient Features of Key Freight Sector Initiatives
ROLL-ON ROLL-OFF (RO-RO)
- In the Railway
Budget for 2016-17, Minister of Railways has announced that an Action Plan
will be developed and implemented to expand the freight basket through
either Containerization or new delivery models.
- ‘Roll-on-Roll-off’
is one such New Delivery Model which can provide multimodal transport mix.
- RORO services were
started on KONKAN Railway and then proliferated to ECR and NFR
successfully last year.
- The pilot project
for Green Transportation across National Capital Region is the next such
service being introduced on Indian Railways today.
- The pilot project
across National Capital Region is the next such service being introduced
on Indian Railways.
- There are
127 entry/exit points for NCR region. 9 major entry/exit points criss-crossing
the region account for 75% of the commercial light and heavy duty trucks.
- Everyday
around 66,000 trucks enter Delhi. Out of these around 38% i.e. 25000 in
number are heavy trucks, of which around 60% i.e. 15000 in number are not
destined for the Capital
- According
to a study, conducted by Centre for Science and Environment, commercial
vehicles entering Delhi spew close to 30% of the total particulate load
and 22% of Nitrogen oxide load from the transport sector.
- This model
would provide movement of trucks in day time also which was restricted
earlier from 7 o clock in the morning to 11 o clock in the night.
- Queues at
the entry points will get reduced and saving considerable amount of time
besides providing adequate rest to truck drivers during Ro-Ro run.
- This model
would substantially reduce the air pollution across NCR, which causes
severe health hazards
- RORO services can
provide an option to these heavy and light commercial vehicles to bypass Delhi.
- RORO envisions to decongest
Delhi by loading these commercial vehicles onto railway flat wagons at
railway terminals/PFTs outside Delhi and unload them after carrying them
across the city.
Benefit to truck operators:
·
Saving in 8-10 hours of transit time is expected as no
commercial vehicles permitted inside NCR during day time.
·
Saving of environment compensation charge (ECC) – around Rs.
1400-2600.
·
Saving of toll tax to enter Delhi- around Rs 500 - 900.
·
Saving of fuel & Reduction in turn round time
·
Railway freight for such movement would be more economical
than the cost incurred by road.
Benefit to Community
·
Reduction in air and noise pollution
·
Reduction in congestion on roads of Delhi
·
Reduction in road accidents.
·
Reduction in carbon footprint of transportation-Railways has
least footprint of all modes.
Benefit to Railways
- Additional traffic
- A new model
envisaging compatibility with road movement and Indian Railway's
participation in national efforts to reduce pollution in major
metropolitan areas through Green Transportation.
- Indian Railway
will also be earning Certified Carbon Credit with every run.
Trial Run
- The first pilot project on NCR
from Garhi Harsaru to Murad Nagar is being flagged off from Patel Nagar on
2nd March, 2017.
LONG TERM TARIFF CONTRACTS/AGREEMENTS
In
compliance of announcement made by Minister of Railways in the Railway Budget
2016-17, it has been decided to launch the policy of Long Term Tariff
Agreements/ Contracts with Railway’s key freight customers using pre-determined
price escalation principle.
v Objectives
· Long
term Gross Freight Revenue (corresponding to Minimum Guaranteed Quantity)
commitments from customers at pre-determined price escalation principle.
· Grant
of incremental Gross Freight Revenue (GFR) linked and absolute GFR
(corresponding to gross volumes) linked discount to customers
v The
main features of the policy are :
·
Minimum
Guaranteed Volume linked discounts on the basis of incremental growth in Gross
Freight Revenue in return for commitment to provide Minimum Guaranteed Quantity
of traffic.
°
Discounts
range from 1.5% to 35% as per the incremental growth in GFR.
°
Customers
are required to offer at least one million tonne traffic per annum.
°
Minimum
period of agreement shall not be less than three years and at stretch not more
than 5 years.
°
New
customer will have to offer more than 3 million tonne traffic during the
agreement period and one million traffic in the first year itself.
·
In
case of customers already offering more than 5 million tonnes of traffic
discount would be granted on the basis of absolute GFR corresponding to the
total volume of traffic offered by the company during the previous 12 months
subject to the same GFR being maintained over the period of the agreement.
°
The
discounts range from 0.5% to 5% according to the volume of traffic.
°
The
customers already offering more than five million tonne of traffic can avail
both discounts also subject to fulfillment of conditions.
·
Excluded
commodities: All commodities below Class-100, Coal & Coke, Military traffic
and RMC.
·
Under
the pre-determined price escalation principle, any increase or decrease in
freight rates will be implemented from the beginning of the next year of the
agreement only.
·
Discount
in freight under this scheme will be given as refund within 45 days.
·
Agreement
will be signed at Zonal Railway level.
·
In
case of multi zone operations of a customer, the agreement will be signed with
that Zonal Railway which deals with maximum traffic of that customer.
·
Customer
can opt for single zone or multi zone agreements or both.
v Beneficiaries:
·
Key
customers such as cement, fertilizers, steel industries etc.
v Benefits
·
Stability
and Certainty of long term tariff/freight rates to the customers
·
Assured
supply of wagons/rakes to the customers through preferential traffic order
(PTO).
·
Incremental
guaranteed volume of traffic and GFR to Railways.
TRIAL RUN OF DOUBLE STACK DWARF CONTAINERS
v In
the Railway Budget for 2016-17, Minister of Railways has announced that an Action
Plan will be developed and implemented to expand the freight basket and
recapture the traffic through either Containerization or New Delivery Models.
v Double
Stack Dwarf Container Train is one such Innovative Delivery Model.
Main
Feature
v Double Stack Dwarf Containers are designed with 6 feet 4
inches height to run under wire for maximum throughput with increased
loadability.
v The overhead electric equipment in electrified territories on
the Indian Railways acts as infringements to proliferation of ISO double stack
containers (with conventional height of 8.5 ft and 9.5 ft.) on electrified
section. All important routes are electrified.
v A single stack ISO 40 feet container has loadability of
around 32 tonnes which can be increased to around 54 tonnes in Double Stack
Dwarf Containers on electrified sections. Hence, the load-ability per BLC
wagon can be increased by more than 55% by using this delivery model.
v In a BLC rake, 90 TEUs of conventional containers can be
transported under wire while through dwarf containers, 180 TEUs can be
transported in a BLC rake.
v The concept has been received with excitement by various
groups of customers transporting commodities with low- weight- volume ratio.
v A preliminary trial run of Double Stack Dwarf
Containers was undertaken in Jan 2017. After ensuring removal of
Infrastructure constraints, a confirmatory trial run is being launched today,
i.e. on 2nd March, 2017 by Minister of Railways between Ambala and Jamnagar
(with run from Ambala to Ludhiana under wire) after which commercial runs will
be started.
Benefits:
v The load-ability per BLC wagon under wire would increase by
more than 55% thereby increasing throughput.
v Per unit cost of transportation would come down. Beneficial
to commodities with low weight- volume ratio.
v The model envisages procurement of BLC rakes and development
of Dwarf Containers by Container Train Operators and other stakeholders.
v Indian Railways is likely to regain lost modal share and
capture new traffic in domestic segment like Petchem products such as Low
Density/High Density Polyethylene, Plastic granules, white goods, PVC and Polyester
fabric etc.
v Likely to attract additional traffic of around 3 Million
tonnes in the initial year.
INDIAN
RAILWAY’s BUSINESS PLAN 2017-18
Overview
v Subsequent
to Railway Budget 2016-17- Several initiatives were launched in Passenger,
Freight and Non-fare Business segments over the last one year after several
rounds of interaction with stakeholders.
v The
Business Plan 2017-18 is a continuation of our sustained efforts to make the
journeys of our passengers more pleasurable and to make Indian Railway's
Freight Business more responsive to the needs of our customers.
v This
Business Plan details 50 actionable initiatives covering the core business
segments of Indian Railway's Passenger and Freight Sectors as well as new
avenues in Parcel and Non-fare business, that Indian Railways shall be focused
on, in 2017-18.
Salient
Features of Business Plan 2017-18
Freight
Segment
v Upgrading
the Delivery System by initiatives like revamp of railway goodsheds
through partnerships with stakeholders (Pilot for 10 goodsheds followed by policy
for scaling up), New Delivery Models like Ro-Ro, Dwarf Containers (Being
launched today), Road-Railers (Between Palwal and Melpakkam), new terminals
(100 by end of 2017-18) .
v Better
freight services and rationalized tariffs to expand the freight basket(more
commodities like Bulk Cement, Steel Products etc. to be taken out of restricted
list for Containerization), long term contracts with Freight Customers,
End-to-End solutions (through partnerships at 10 goodsheds), Rationalization of
weighment policy, Timetabled trains with premium on assured transit time (50
paths to be carved out in 2017-18) and procurement of specialized rolling
stock for sectors like automobiles etc.
v Operational
strategies to enhance throughput like procurement of 3000 25T BOXNS wagons in
2017-18, leverage IT and to improve asset utilization.
v International
Freight Services under which a demo train run between Bangladesh and
India and a meeting of CEOs of railways of concerned countries to boost
intermodal regional connectivity is planned in 2017-18
Passenger Segment
v Transformation
of ticketing by migrating towards cashless, paperless ticketing (6000 PoS
machines and 1000 Ticket Vending Machines in 2017-18), Aadhaar -based ticketing
and an integrated ticketing App by May 2017.
v Providing
comfort and a pleasurable journey experience through induction of new LHB Rakes(about
2300 coaches in 2017-18), adding comfort features to coaches, improvement in
Catering and converting 25 stations to Digipay mode in 2017-18 by digitizing
entire station transactions.
v Fulfilling
travel needs by scaling up the new train products like Humsafar (7 new services
by 2017), Antyodaya (7 new services by June 2017), Tejas (3 new services by
June 2017) etc., Meeting demands surges through adequate special trains and
coaches, A new policy for rail tourism including development of Hill Railways
through partnerships besides several new Tourist Friendly Packages.
New
Business Avenues
v Enhancing
Parcel Business through New partnership with the Postal Department to provide
End-to-End solution in Parcel Traffic (further proliferation beyond the 3rd
train inaugurated on 27th Feb), and leveraging IT to provide efficient Booking,
Handling and Tracking including Rolling out of PLUTO- The new Parcel Tracking
App, New Courier Service between Delhi and Chennai etc., Rolling out of Parcel
Management Systems to leverage IT and provide efficient Parcel Booking,
Handling and Tracking etc.
v Augmenting
Non-fare revenues by monetization of Railways' hard and soft assets through proliferation
of Rail Display Network (RDN) at 408 A-1 and A class stations in 2017-18, New
policy on Out-of-Home advertising to generate Rs 6000 Crores in 10 years, About
2000 new ATMs, Train advertising, Content-on-demand and Rail Radio besides
monetized apps for complaints/feedback and Cab Booking.
The
initiatives enlisted in Business Plan 2017-18 carry specific targets and
timelines. These will form the roadmap for the transformative journey of Indian
Railway towards its vision of becoming an 'engine of growth' for the Indian
Economy.
****
AKS/MKV