To boost goods traffic, the Railways will compete with the road transport sector, offering discounts on round-trip bookings. A new scheme has been rolled out to woo consignors with a 10% discount.
After an analysis revealed that one of the reasons for consignors to move goods by road even when a rail network existed on the same route was that road hauliers offered customers a discount when traffic was assured in both directions, the Railway Board said in a note to the General Managers of Zonal Railways.
Given that a sizeable number of rakes ran back empty, it was felt the Railways should encourage round-trip traffic with discounts.
Under the scheme, if a consignor commits himself to traffic back to the originating station, either from the destination station or from any point within 200 km therefrom, the outward and return traffic will be charged at a lower rate. For instance, if a consignor transports ‘A’ class goods in the outward direction, which has a prescribed rate, and ‘B’ class goods in the return direction, which has another rate, he/she will be charged lower for both directions. In case, the same class of goods are moved in the round-trip, the consignor will be entitled to a 10% discount.
Senior officials in charge of the commercial and operations departments were told to analyse the traffic flow by road of various commodities and hold discussions with potential customers about the new scheme that would be implemented from July 1, 2020, for a period of one year.
The freight train kilometre across the network increased from 391 million km in 2016-17 to 415 million km in 2018-19. The revenue-earning freight traffic in 2018-19 was 1,221.48 million tonne.
In November 2019, the Railways increased the freight rate for coal, raw material for steel plants, iron and steel, iron ore and other goods by 8.75%. However, there was no increase in the rate for food grains, fertilizers, petroleum, oil and lubricants, sugar, salt, edible oils and cement. A 25% concession was given in the movement of empty containers.
