Indian Railways launches Freight Marketing Schemes

Indian Railways have introduced following freight marketing schemes for procurement of wagons/ rakes by inviting private investment to enhance existing fleet of wagons (freight carrier) with a view to generate more revenue. These are –

(i) Special Freight Train Operator (SFTO) Scheme – For high capacity and special purpose wagons for transportation of selected commodity.

Proposals have been received from two parties for procurement of three rakes by each party.

(ii) Automobile Freight Train Operator (AFTO) Scheme – For transportation of automobiles traffic with suitable design and higher throughput. Proposals have been received for procurement of 12 rakes from two parties. Out of which, 6 rakes have been inducted and running on Indian Railway’s system.

(iii) Railways have introduced an Automatic Freight Rebate Scheme for traffic loaded in traditional empty flow directions w.e.f. 25.06.2014 wherein all rakes loaded in notified empty flow directions are charged at Class LR1 for trainload traffic and at Class 100 for wagonload traffic subject to certain terms and conditions. In addition, an incentive scheme for Freight Forwarders is already in place since 2006, which facilitates cargo aggregation.

(iv) Container Train Operators Policy – This was opened in 2006, where Private Container Train Operators were allowed to operate container trains for movement of both domestic containers as well as EXIM (Export-Import) containers. While these rakes are owned by Container Train Operators (CTOs), Indian Railways hauls their rakes and realizes haulage charges. At present, there are 387 container rakes owned by Container Corporation of India Limited (CONCOR) and 16 other Container Train Operators (CTOs) who have obtained licenses to operate. During last financial year, container traffic loading on Indian Railways was 48.83 million tonnes registering a growth of 12% over 2013-2014.

(c) Under these schemes, rakes are procured by the private parties, as such, the question of allocation of fund in this regard does not arise.

IndianBureaucracy.com wishes the IndianRailways the very best in all their new initiatives.