Railways haulage rates may dip

Companies willing to invest in acquiring railway wagons for hauling goods may see a significant dip in their transportation costs.

The railway ministry is giving a final shape to a policy that will permit such companies to own wagons and pay on the basis of haulage per wagon instead of the present per-tonne freight. Haulage per wagon can be almost half the freight applied even under the existing schemes of goods movement in containers.

"We will come out with a separate rate structure under this scheme as the present tariff is commodity-specific. We need wagon-specific rates," a ministry official said.

He added that the rate structure would be decided after consulting various stakeholders. He also said the rate structure would be framed on the lines of what was charged by Container Corporation of India (Concor).

To put things in perspective, while haulage for Delhi-Mumbai is Rs 450 for 27 tonnes, Concor's tariff is Rs 825. So, by just paying haulage, a company may be able to save half its costs.

The policy can also benefit customers that want to carry break-bulk cargo, which cannot be placed in containers. For instance, there are items like consumer durables and automobiles that need to be transported but cannot use containers.

These goods, because of their larger surface area, occupy more space even though their weight per wagon is not much. In such cases, freight on the basis of weight, turned out to be relatively high for customers, the official said. That was why break-bulk cargo items ended up going via road and it was important to arrest this trend, he said.

The official said that the move was aimed at bringing better quality wagons into the country. So far, wagon-leasing was controlled by Indian Rail Finance Corporation but now the market should be opened up to bring in latest technologies, the official said.

To bring in technologically superior wagons into the country, the railways will also allow customers to import specialised wagons and get them certified by the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RSDO), the research and development arm of the railways.

At present, wagon technology in India is obsolete and the railways do not have special wagons for carrying commodities like steel pipes, plastic pellets and automobiles. Even the wagon manufacturing units in India were cash-strapped to invest in upgrading wagons, the official said.

At present, the railways do have a wagon investment scheme, but under this, companies investing in wagons are given some freight rebates. Moreover, it does not cover wagons that can be imported.