Railways Take Various Steps to Improve Freight Share

The Ministry of Railways has approved a pilot project on trial basis for running of RoadRailer train and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with a private firm to increase freight earnings.

Presently, transportation of trucks by Railway wagons is undertaken under the nomenclature 'Roll-on-Roll-off' (Ro-Ro) scheme on the network of Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd.

To improve freight share of Railways, the following inventive steps have been taken by Indian Railways:

(1) Procurement of wagons by private investors through Public Private Partnership mode under the following schemes:

1. Liberalized Wagon Investment Scheme.

2. Wagon Leasing Scheme.

3. Special Freight Train Operators Scheme.

4. Automobile Freight Train Operators Scheme.

5. Special Parcel Train Operator Scheme.

(2) Private investment for development of Private Freight Terminals through Public Private Partnership mode.

(3) Development of Eastern and Western dedicated freight corridors.

(4) Automatic Freight Rebate for traffic loaded in inter-zonal traditional empty flow direction.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Manoj Sinha in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

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