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Our Bureau

Plans to come out with draft policy framework soon

New Delhi , Jan. 10

With the aim of capturing traffic anticipated from the retail boom, the Railways plans to invite firms to invest in setting up infrastructure on its land for creating a supply chain to move agricultural products from their points of produce to demand destinations.

The Railways has announced plans to have 7500 agricultural outlets at stations. Retail players who want to use these outlets, will be required to invest in the back-end infrastructure as well. These outlets can also sell non-agricultural commodities.

The players

The Indian Railways, which had a meeting with several players including ITC, Cargill India, Adani Enterprises, IL&FS, Pantaloon, Godrej Agrovet, plans to come out with a draft policy framework over the next three weeks. Comments would then be invited from stakeholders on the policy before firming it up, said official sources.

The infrastructure required for an integrated supply link consists of national (to be built on an area of over hundred acres) , regional (10-20 acres) and village hubs (a few thousand sq mtrs). The facilities in a hub would vary depending on requirement but would include collection centres, different kind of warehousing, grading, processing and packaging, amongst others.

The commodities are expected to be moved to village hubs in traditional modes of transport such as a bullock cart or a Tata 407, from village to regional hubs through trucks or railway parcel vans, and from regional to national hubs on trains.

The Railways plans to form clusters that would consist of a combination of national, regional and village hubs. Players would be required to bid on a revenue-sharing basis to take a cluster on lease for 30-50 years and invest and operate it. Players with container operating licences would be given preference.

More Stories on : Railways | Supply Chain Management | Agriculture

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