The Mysuru Division of South Western Railway, which notched up impressive performance till July 2021 in the freight segment, is seeking to attract new streams of goods traffic to shore up its revenue in the current fiscal.
The Operations and Commercial Departments of the division recently conducted a meeting with the copra merchants at Tiptur to explore the possibility of generating business for mutual benefit in which the Minister for Primary and Secondary Education B.C. Nagesh and other officials were present.
The thrust of the meeting was on advantages of transportation of cargo by rail and the authorities said that the meeting was conducted in Tiptur as it has the biggest copra market in Asia.
Every week anywhere between 300 to 400 tonnes of copra is transported from Tiptur to several States including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi, and the railways want to capture this segment to increase freight revenue.
Manjunath Kanamadi, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, apprised the participants of the benefits of transporting the cargo by freight trains and said that the faster transit time by the railways will be beneficial and the traders can expand their customer base by extending their supplies to new markets .
The merchants urged the railway authorities to bring copra too under the ambit of the Kisan Rail project to enable them to not only transport copra by rail by utilising the vast network of the Indian Railways, but also to gain the subsidy announced under the Kisan Rail project. The merchants’ body also argued that the subsidy would offset the overheads for multiple operations at loading and unloading points.
The Kisan Rail was announced by the government recently and it was explained that the scheme is meant for transportation of perishables, fruits, and vegetables, dairy products, meat, and poultry.
However, the trade body was suggested to discuss the issue with the Government of Karnataka and the Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries would examine the demand for the inclusion of any other commodity for the subsidy based on the recommendation of the State Government.
Rahul Agarwal, Divisional Railway Manager, South Western Railway, Mysuru, instructed all the heads of all departments to take necessary steps for creating a congenial environment for traders to opt for rail movement. Thrust must be on doing away with even a minor irritant in all the processes, and this should be assigned the highest priority, he added.
Despite the impact of COVID-19 on the general economy, the Division had notched up a revenue of ₹250.57 crore till the end of July 2021 and this was 253 per cent higher compared to the corresponding period last year. This is a fallout of the establishment of Business Development Units in all zonal railways and divisions , for attracting new streams of traffic and also to increase the modal share of freight traffic, said the authorities.
