The Hindu Business Line : Container movement opened up to private players

TO cater to the growing container traffic estimated at 15 per cent annually, the Railways has decided to allow entities other than State-owned Container Corporation of India (Concor) to run container trains, the Railway Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav, said on Saturday.

A beginning in this direction was made in November last year when the Railway Board cleared a long-pending proposal to allow Pipavav Railway Corporation Ltd (PRCL), a 50-50 joint venture between the Indian Railways and Gujarat Pipavav Port Ltd, to operate container trains from Pipavav port to various inland container depots.

The Railways has also proposed to introduce double stack container trains during the next two years on one of the identified routes connecting Northern India with ports in Gujarat such as Kandla and Mundra, subject to cost factors."Capacity constraints on the existing routes necessitate introduction of double stack container freight trains," Mr Yadav said while presenting the Railway Budget for 2005-06.

The Railways has also decided to encourage freight customers to develop their private sidings to increase its share in the transportation of goods. Accordingly, the Railways proposes to share the cost of a new railway siding if the industry comes up with a long-term traffic commitment for 10 years or more.

Under this arrangement, the Railways will bear the cost of the removable super-structure such as tracks, sleepers, fastening, overhead electric equipment; and the capital cost of all traffic facilities like the `Y' connection, additional lines at serving stations, crossing stations and patch doubling. The siding owners will bear the cost of land, earthwork and the sub-structure of tracks.

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