Rail cargo terms not fair: Pvt firms

Many of the companies to which the railways have issued licences to run private container trains have complained that the terms for running the business were loaded against them.

At a meeting here on Wednesday, company representatives said the draft copies of the model concession agreement which was issued by the railways did not inspire much confidence. The final copy of the agreement was expected to be ready within three weeks.

The railways had issued licences to 14 companies including Concor, to enter the private container-train business. Representatives of these, which included Reliance Industries, Adani Ports and JM Baxi & Co, attended the seminar.

In the presence of railways officers, many company representatives said even after having collected licence fees of Rs 10 crore and Rs 50 crore each from them, the ministry had not formulated policies that would help private players who were new to the business.

The lack of an independent regulator, imposition of service tax on private players, the unwillingness of the railways to give transit guarantees (the minimum time within which trains would complete trips) and the frequent hikes in haulage rates were some of the issues raised by company executives.

Interestingly, railway officers, especially Adviser (Traffic) Ashok Gupta made it clear that there was a limit to the number of incentives that the ministry could offer. One of the representatives openly complained that the officer's statement smacked of a monopolistic attitude.

However, there was a division between small and large companies such as Reliance and Adani in terms of strategy.