Indian Railways targets to double freight earnings in next 2-3 years, forms new strategy to up freight loading

New Delhi: Indian Railways has formulated a new strategy to increase freight loading. The national transporter has set up Business Development Units (BDU) at Zonal and Divisional levels to identify new traffic streams, according to official notification.

The multi-disciplinary BDUs will prepare a business acquisition plan for each Zones and Divisions. Chairman of Railway Board will regularly review and monitor the progress made by the BDUs. 

Indian Railways has also set up a target to double its freight earnings in next 2-3 years. As of now, Railways has major earnings from 9 major baskets including coal, steel, iron ore, etc.

To achieve the mission of doubling the freight earnings, Railways will increase the volumes from existing baskets/traffic, and bring in new traffic, usually the goods like automobiles that is moved through other modes of transportation.

The Ministry of Railways is also moving ahead on the private player train project, which is expected to invite Rs 30,000 crore. The top Indian companies including Tata Group, Adani Port, Essel Group, Bombardier India, and Alstom have taken a keen interest in the project.

The Ministry aims to complete the bidding process soon, and start running the first private player train by March 2023.

The government had earlier initiated the Request for Quotation (RFQ) process for receiving questions or queries from the private players. The last date for this process was July 16. 

All the received questions will be answered by July 31, the ministry had earlier said. After the second pre-bid meeting, the ministry will send answers to all the questions by August 21.