The South Central Railway (SCR) is on the verge of signing agreements with two players for setting up brownfield and greenfield projects here under the PFT (Private Freight Terminals) policy announced by the Indian Railways last year.
“We have received a proposal from Hyderabad-based Continental Multimodel Logistics Park Limited, a joint venture between fertiliser manufacturing cooperative society Kribhco and the NDR Group of Companies, for setting up a brownfield PFT at Timmapur. This proposal has entered the final stage. We are also chasing one greenfield PFT at Nagulapally, on the city outskirts, with Container Corporation that likely to crystalise within a month,” Sunil K Agarwal, chief operations manager of SCR, told mediapersons here on Tuesday. on the city outskirts
The Indian Railways had, in 2010, announced a policy on developing PFTs seeking investments from private players. The objective of the policy is to enable rapid development of network of freight handling terminals with the participation of the private sector to enhance the presence and share of railways in the overall transport chain.
Once the Timmapur PFT becomes operational, SCR expects more private players, who are currently sitting on the fence, to pitch in, Agarwal said adding a private player typically required to invest Rs 8 crore in the PFT, while SCR on its part would provide line connectivity.
“The PFT initiative will not cut into our freight revenues. In fact, it is a win-win situation ... more terminals means more business.”
SCR, which garners about 70 per cent of its revenues from freight operations, reported freight earnings of Rs 1,347 crore of the total originating earnings of Rs 1,916 crore for the first quarter of FY12. This is a growth of 13.32 per cent, compared with Rs 1,188.69 crore for the corresponding period of last year.
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During the first quarter of FY12, SCR achieved freight loading of 24.73 million tonne, as against 22 million tonne during the same time last year. Agarwal said they were targeting to achieve freight loading of 106 million tonne this financial year, as compared with 96 million tonne last year.
“The freight loading got a boost from the tremendous growth in port traffic at Krishnapatnam and Kakinada. While the loading at Krishnapatnam got more than doubled to 2 million tonne in Q1, loading improved to 1 million tonne at Kakinada, from 765,000 tonne during Q1 of last year. With new ports at Machilipatnam and Vadrevu on the cards, SCR’s freight loading is set to touch new highs in the next two to three years,” he added.