Aiming to boost railway's earnings and to lower the operating ratio (money spent to earn Rs 100), Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu dedicated three new freight terminals and inaugurated them by flagging off freight trains from these terminals on Wednesday.
The minister also flagged off a passenger train from Punalur to Palakkad and a first high-axle load steel carrier train from Jamshedpur to Chennai.
"Kerala is a state with high population density with not much urban rural divide, so demand for public transport is high. This new train would cater to the needs of people of Kerala. Stoppages and timings of this train has been taken care of based on the suggestions from the representations from the state," Prabhu said, after flagging off the train via video-conference from Delhi.
The minister said that the Indian Railways, which had lately witnessed a drop from freight earnings (65 per cent of total receipts), would focus on adding more freight terminals across the country.
"We have a mission for 100 freight terminals which was announced in my last rail budget (2016-17). Over the next two years we plan to bring up 100 freight terminals with private participation," Prabhu said.
The minister added that during 2016-17 almost 45 freight terminals have been commissioned across the country, and that they are all at different stages of development.
Freight terminals of Indian Railways are aiming door-to-door delivery service of cargo. Private companies can get their own dedicated freight terminals under the new private siding and private freight terminal policies.
On Wednesday, Prabhu inaugurated the private freight terminals of Adani at Kila Raipur, Punjab of Penna Cement in Tandur, Telengana and of Indian Railways subsidiary CONCOR (Container Corporation of India Ltd) at Khemli, Rajasthan, for their inland container terminal.
The railways minister also flagged off what the railways is calling the first high axle load steel carrier rake, under Special Freight Train Operator (SFTO) policy from Jamshedpur. The high axle load train has a higher load bearing capacity over normal freight train rake and could be customised depending on need of customers.
"It is a challenge for railways to run passenger and cargo train on same track and also maintain punctuality. Our traffic has grown 65 times and handling capacity has just grown four times. Maintaining punctuality is a challenge. We are working for it," Prabhu said.
Though freight transport via rail is cheaper, railways witnessed a slump in last two years as rake availability and delays in deliveries encouraged the use of road transport.
Later in the day, speaking at a workshop in New Delhi Prabhu said, research is a neglected area in railways and his ministry is planning to establish more Research and Development centers for railways.
Stressing the importance of research, he said, value addition can happen only when it is backed by research. He said value addition through skill India is needed to make the country a manufacturing hub.
Prabhu also stressed on the need for having a strong ICT (Information and Communications Technology) network to boost the use of new technologies in functions of the railways like signaling, scheduling and safety among others.
