Railways will set up unit for handling logistics by July, says official

NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways will set up a new state-owned entity, TRANSLOC, by July to handle transport logistics, a senior official said today.

"The railways have already moved a Cabinet note to this effect. We expect the new entity (TRANSLOC) would be created in next 4-5 months to attain the objectives of implementing railways projects through public private partnership (PPP) route," said a PHD Chamber of Commerce press released quoting Rail Ministry ED-Traffic/PPP M S Mathur.

Addressing a conference organised by the Chamber, he said: "The Cabinet clearance is keenly awaited for setting up of Transport Logistics Corporation of India."

In his budget speech last month, Rail Minister Suresh Prabhu had proposed to set up the public sector unit and said, "Indian Railways must expand freight handling capacity in tandem with the expansion of freight carrying network capacity."

TRANSLOC will develop common user facilities with handling and value-added services to provide end-to-end logistics solution at select Railway terminals through PPPs.

In the budget it was proposed to upgrade 10 existing goods sheds of Indian Railways and develop 30 small multimodal logistic parks, initially under the aegis of TRANSLOC, where Indian Railways has surplus land.

Mathur also said that the tariff regulator for the railways will be appointed by 2016.

"The appointment of railways regulator will take about a year as things are advancing towards this direction," he said.

"The tariff regulator would suggest to the government the tariff and freight structure for the railways in addition to recommending the reforms on pricing factor of the largest entity of the government," he said.

Mathur said the latest gross revenues of the railways have reached to Rs 1,40,000 crore against its working expenses of Rs 1,30,000 crore.