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Pipavav Rail designs double stack containers in electrified routes

New containers: Specially designed double stack containers in electrified train routes for transporting cars.

Mamuni Das

New Delhi, July 23

The Indian Railways has successfully completed the pilot project to move cars in specially designed double stack containers in electrified train routes under electric wire. With this move, the automobile transportation market in India, estimated to be over Rs 1,000 crore per annum can be tapped by the Railways.

Pipavav Rail Corporation Ltd (PRCL) designed and developed modified containers with lower height along with special fitments to carry four cars per container. The modified containers have the same dimensions as that of 40 feet standard size containers, except the height which has been reduced to 6 feet and 2.5 inches.

The train carrying eight Maruti Suzuki Alto vehicles in two modified containers (one container over the other on a flat wagon) started from the container terminal of Concor at Tughlakabad (Delhi) to Mathura in electrified routes. From Mathura, it came back to Gurgaon via Alwar on the diesel route.

With such a double-stack container train, it will be possible to transport 360 cars per train compared with 120 cars being transported by specially designed coaches, at present by the Indian Railways. “This train would not only provide the car industry an efficient and reliable system for bulk movement but would also reduce the unit costs significantly,” Mr Naresh Kumar, Vice President-Technical, PRCL, told Business Line.

“We handed the eight cars back to Maruti Suzuki and they have confirmed that they have received cars without any damage,” he added.

PRCL is planning to undertake transportation of automobiles from Maruti Udyog, Gurgaon to another hub at Pune. In the return direction possibility of loading cars from manufacturing units in Pune to North India are being explored. Maruti Udyog spends an estimated Rs 400 crore annually on transportation of its vehicles.

PRCL plans to undertake another trial run with triple stack container train in the non-electrified territory connecting National Capital Region with Western ports in the near future. PRCL undertook a detailed survey of one of the identified routes — Delhi to Pune — to examine rail sections and locations requiring adequate clearances for running of double stack container trains under wire.

PRCL is a joint venture between the Indian Railways and Gujarat Pipavav Port Ltd. It has a container train operating license (Rs 10 crore category).

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