Railways gung-ho on logistics
Indian Railways (IR) is in talks with some state governments to develop logistics parks alongside the route of the proposed dedicated freight corridor (DFC).
By Ashish Kumar Mishra, TNN |
MUMBAI: Indian Railways (IR) is in talks with some state governments to develop logistics parks alongside the route of the proposed dedicated freight corridor (DFC). The corridor will run across states, connecting various production centres to seaports and providing faster transit of cargo.
According to sources, IR is already in advanced stage of talks with the Punjab government and has identified a plot of land at Ladhowal near Ludhiana to develop the same. Plots of land have also been identified at Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Baroda among a host of other places.
���The modelling arrangement highlighting the responsibilities of all parties is still being worked out, but this is a public-private partnership (PPP) initiative, wherein IR is only making available the land while the development of the same will be responsibility of the state governments,��� said a top IR official.
These logistics parks are expected to be a ���one-stop shop��� for customers who use the DFC. Plans are being laid down for both the eastern and the western DFC. The parks will house a wide array of services, right from container terminals to facilities of overhauling of goods, warehousing, integration with the road network, banking facilities, retiring rooms and restaurants.
���We will not be taking the responsibility of setting up services as movement of goods is our core area and we would not like to move away from that,��� added the official. While the logistics parks will benefit both IR and companies using the rail network, alongside it will also open up avenues for logistics service providers.
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The western corridor, fit for double stack container operations on diesel traction, would start from Jawaharlal Nehru Port and will be routed via Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Palanpur and Rewri to Tughlaqabad and Dadri. On the other hand, the 1,232-km eastern corridor, fit for electric traction and high axle load operations, will start from Ludhiana in Punjab and will connect steel plants located in the eastern parts of the country, such as Durgapur in West Bengal, Bokaro and Tatanagar in Jharkhand. The corridor will be extended up to the proposed deep-sea port in Kolkata, in view of the increase in containers and other cargo traffic. The cost is estimated to be around Rs 9,695 crore. A line between Dadri and Khurja to facilitate transfer from one corridor to another will interconnect the corridors.
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