The Hindu Business Line : Mundra-NCR rail route to be ready in one year

The rail route to move double stack containers between the national capital region and Mundra port is likely to be ready in a year, a senior Government official said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a seminar on the entry of private firms into the rail container operations space, Mr Ashok Gupta, Advisor-Traffic, Indian Railways, said: "The connectivity to Mundra (port) should be ready in a month. Moreover, in a year, the route between Delhi region (near Rewari) to Mundra via Ringus, Phulera should be ready."

Transit time guarantees

Moreover, rail container operators who recently acquired licences to operate discussed their concerns, including the need for transit time guarantees and predictability in haulage charge increases from the Railways.

The Railways indicated that it would try to address some of the concerns in the model concession agreement that is being drafted.

While the Railways has clearly stated the obligations on the part of players, there is a need to spell out obligations on its part, said Mr Amit Bansal, Head-Business Development, PPP, Crisil.

Several operators spelt out the need for the Railways to provide a guaranteed time within which their rakes can be moved between two points. The operators require this to provide their customers with service guarantees.

However, the Railways has indicated that it would be difficult for it to provide such transit guarantees given the line capacity constraint and given that it does not provide such guarantees to any of its other customers.

"Containers form about two per cent of total freight traffic moved by the Railways. It would be difficult to provide such service guarantees to container operators while we don't provide such guarantees to other customers," said Mr Gupta.

Leasing wagons

Speaking on the occasion, Mr S.K. Maheshwari, Executive Director, Srei Infrastructure Finance, said that the company is looking at getting into the space of leasing flat wagons to container operators. "We are already in talks with several operators to lease wagons to them."

He added that the company might invest in the range of Rs 400 crore in the sector, to start with.