New Delhi: The Indian Railways is turning to the private sector for help in redesigning wagons to carry a different range of goods such as fly ash, coils and cars.
While there are more than 2.8 lakh conventional goods wagons in the country, there is a need for about 10,000 new-design wagons in the rail sector in order to more efficiently transport goods such as cars, trucks, cement, steel coil and fly ash.
Incidentally, while locomotives and coaches are largely manufactured in state-run railways production units, a majority of wagon production happens in the private sector.
This move, railway sources say, is in continuation with the national transporter’s ongoing move to outsource more areas to India’s private sector.
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Deploying onboard house-keeping staff, security guards in railway buildings, catering and a part of maintenance jobs are outsourced now, All-India Railwaymen’s Federation general secretary Shiv Gopal Mishra told The Wire.
Privatisation is continuously increasing in railways, which is not good for safety and efficiency, Mishra said, adding that while contractors are benefiting, railwaymen continue to be blamed for various failures.
However, a senior railway official noted that the core areas of rail operation still remain with the national transporter.
“We have sought industry’s participation in redesigning wagons to cater to auto, cement, steel and other sectors including finished products,” the official added.
The new design wagons will be approved by the Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO), railways research wing, before becoming operational.
What will the new designs do?
Government officials say that India requires new-design automobile carriers to transport more vehicles from factories to their destinations. While the railways currently transports about 3.5 lakh cars a year, the next fiscal target is to carry about six lakh cars.
Specially-designed flat wagons with low-floor height are also required to carry more trucks.
Shifting loaded trucks from the road to rails will not only save fuel, it will also be a boost to the environment and help the railways increase its loading share, one official said.
“This would be possible with customised wagons for which we are encouraging the auto industry to come up with a new design,” added the official.
Thermal plants generate 200 million tonnes of fly ash in a year. However, the railways carries only about three million tonnes of it to cement factories. Now the challenge, government sources say, is to carry upto 60 MT in a year.
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To do this, there is a need for new-design covered hopper wagons with unloading facilities to carry fly ash. Earlier it was carried in plastic bags, which involved costing for bags and loss due to loading and unloading.
Now the new-design wagon aims to carry fly ash directly from the plants and unload it at cement factory, which is environment-friendly as well, the official said.
On similar lines, steel coils have till now moved on conventional wagons. But, sources say, there have been a number of cases of damaged wagons as a result of this. So now, specially-designed coil carriers are needed to carry more in a safest possible way.
Earlier, one freight train would be able to carry roughly 3,000 tonnes of coil, but the newly designed wagons would be able to do 4,000 tonnes.
The new-design wagons therefore will attract more goods, which will not only increase the loading share of the national transporter, but also decongest highways and roads, and improve air quality.
Arun Kumar Das is a senior journalist and can be contacted at akdas2005@gmail.com