Indian Railways To Ramp Up Efficiency To Increase Market Share In Freight Transport

The Indian Railways has chalked out a detailed plan to increase its market share in freight transport from the current 28 per cent to 33 per cent in 2026, 39 per cent in 2031 and eventually 44 per cent by 2051, reports Auto Car Pro.

These plans were revealed in the National Rail Plan (NRP) document that was released in December 2020. The government is prepared to take a host of measures to boost the national transporter’s efficiency.

For starters, there is a proposal to cut down tariff on certain commodities by as much as 30 per cent. The speed of these trains is set to be doubled to around 50 kmph gradually as the Indian Railways conceded their market share in the past due to restricted speeds and capacity limitations. An increase in freight movements through railways will consequently affect the logistic traffic on roadways though.

The utilization of Medium and Heavy Commercial Vehicles (M&HCVs) will be hampered but the whole situation can very well cut down road traffic congestion and pave the way for convenient movement of traffic across the country. Furthermore, there will be lesser diesel emission, and transportation costs could be reduced given that M&HCVs have 400-litre tanks, filling which costs approximately Rs 32,748 as per the current trends.

Moreover, the Indian Railways has also tapped on the opportunity to grow rapidly in terms of transport of production-ready automobile cars to different parts of the country. The national transporter had loaded merely 429 rakes in FY 2013-14.

However, conscious efforts have resulted in 1595 rakes delivering cars loaded in FY 2019-20. Indian Railways is aiming to achieve share of 20 per cent by FY 2021-22 and 30 per cent by FY 2022-23 in this aspect. Currently, there are 52 railway terminals available for loading of automobiles whereas private freight terminals (PFTs), inland container depots (ICDs) and every private siding can manage the automobile traffic.