The Hindu Business Line : Transportation of cars — Concor in talks with wagon manufacturers

CONCOR is in talks with wagon manufacturers for acquisition of special wagons that would be used for its automobile project. The company aims to target the booming automobile market and offer services for transporting automobiles using containers on railway tracks.

It has already designed special wagons for transporting vehicles and has acquired necessary clearance from the Lucknow-based Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO). RDSO is the research and standardisation arm of the Indian Railways.

"We have sent the (RDSO) approved prototypes to various wagon manufacturers and are currently in price negotiation discussions with them. The idea is to firm up our financials," said a senior official.

The company plans to run 7-8 rakes (trains) to start with. Each rake would have around 20-25 of the special wagons, the official added.

On the wagon designs, the official said: "Till now we have primarily used flat wagons for containers. For the auto project, we would have covered wagons with two levels of storage."

This is to ensure that a higher number of vehicles can be carried, bringing down the cost of transportation for auto manufacturers.

"We would price the service at a level so that it is lower than moving vehicles on the road. It would be competitive," the official said.

Concor is targeting vehicle transportation in the domestic market to start with, since there is "enough demand", but would not be averse to servicing the export-import traffic if the demand arises.

It plans to offer end-to-end transport solutions for auto manufacturers wherein the vehicle would be picked up from the manufacturing plant and delivered at the local vehicle delivery agents' end.

The public sector unit plans to tie up with a player with expertise in transporting vehicles in the road sector in order to tie up the first- and last-mile connectivity issues at both the ends of rail links.

Transporting vehicles is a specialised service since new vehicles are being transported for delivery.

As vehicles would have to be moved through multi-modal means of transport (road and rail), Concor has to ensure that vehicles are not damaged in any manner during transportation.

The company is also in talks with automobile companies such as Maruti, Tata Motors, and Hyundai, among others, for its project.

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