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The Railways have after many years started gaining share in certain commodity group like cement and Iron Ore. Indian Railways have taken several initiatives in this regard and following steps are being to improve further:
Adequate supply of wagons, aggressive marketing strategies, including restraint in increase in freight rates in the last few years, have been the major factors for improvement in Rail co-efficient in respect of certain commodities including Cement and Iron-ore.
Some of the initiatives for improving the customer satisfaction and rail share are as follows:
Electrification of diesel sidings located on electrified sections will be done at Railway’s cost where justified by traffic;
Engine-on-Load Scheme, has been further liberalized and made attractive; scheme has also been extended to selected goods sheds and for customers not having their own private sidings;
Terminal Incentive Scheme including cash incentives, aimed at reduction of detention at terminals, will be formulated in consultation with industry;
Facilities at freight train examination centers will be upgraded for qualitative improvement in examination and for providing longer intervals between successive examinations;
Electronic Payment Gateway facility has been implemented in January’2005 for Badarpur Thermal Power Station, and the facility will be extended to major customers;
Freight customers will be encouraged to develop their private sidings through cost sharing. The cost of a new railway siding shall be shared by the Railway, if the industry comes up with a long-term commitment of traffic, say for 10 years or more for which a cost benefit analysis would be done by the Zonal Railway. The cost of removable superstructure including railway track, sleepers and the overhead electrical equipment shall be borne by the railways. The cost of the sub-structure of the track including land, earthwork, ballast etc. shall be borne by the customer;
Scheme for development of integrated Warehouse Complexes to provide single window service to customers will be introduced through Public-Private partnership
Goods tariff has been made simple, rational and transparent. The rationalised Goods Tariff contains only 80 group of commodities instead of over 4000 commodities in the erstwhile Tariff;
Total numbers of classes have been reduced from 59 in 2001-02 to 19 w.e.f April, 2005;
The highest class has been reduced in stages from Class 300X in 2001-02 to Class-240 in 2005-06 and
A new attractive ‘Wagon Investment Scheme’ has been formulated assuring guaranteed supply of wagons to customers investing in railway wagons. Scheme also envisages freight rebate and higher priority for such customers.
Comparative details of freight rates for Cement and Iron ore for a distance of 500 kms. are given below:
Year
Cement
Variation
Iron Ore
Variation
(Rs. per Tonne)
+ / -
%age
(Rs. per Tonne)
+ / -
%age
1999-00
406.80
-
-
343.80
-
-
2000-01
414.90
8.10
1.99%
347.60
3.80
1.1%
2001-02
427.30
12.40
2.99%
358.00
10.40
3.0%
2002-03
424.80
-2.50
-0.59%
364.10
6.10
1.7%
2003-04
409.60
-15.20
-3.58%
364.10
0.00
0.0%
2004-05*
424.80
15.20
3.71%
424.80
60.70
16.7%
2005-06
424.80
-
-
485.40
60.60
14.27%
* Class revised w.e.f 27.11.2004
HB/TR
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