Lok Sabha Question No. 661 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-02-06
Subject: Freight Charges
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: VEENA DEVI

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.661 TO BE ANSWERED ON 06.02.2019

## FREIGHT CHARGES

- † 661.  SHRIMATI VEENA DEVI:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the freight charges for road transportation are higher than railways in the country;
- (b) if  so,  the  details  thereof and the approximate total freight being handled by road and railways transportation respectively;
- (c) whether the Government proposes to increase the railways freight handling share; and
- (d)    if so, the targets fixed therefor and the time by which these are to be achieved?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

(SHRI RAJEN GOHAIN)

- (a) to (d) A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

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STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (d) OF UNSTARRED  QUESTION  NO.  661  BY  SHRIMATI  VEENA  DEVI  TO  BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 06.02.2019 REGARDING FREIGHT CHARGES

(a) & (b) Indian Railways' freight tariffs are explicitly notified in the form of a firm structure, based on the classification of commodity transported and  its  lead.  Since  the  tariff  structure  prevalent  on  other  modes  of transport, such as roadways, are generally not so, their comparison with the  railway  freight  tariff  structure  is  considered  neither  accurate  nor meaningful.

(c) & (d) Indian Railways has taken number of steps to increase Railways share. Some of them are as under:

- i. Liberalised  Automatic  Freight  Rebate  scheme  for  traffic  loaded  in empty  flow  direction,  Long  Term  Tariff  Contracts  (LTTC)  with  key freight customers, Station to Station rates (STS), withdrawal of Dual freight policy for Iron Ore, Discount on loading of bagged consignment in open and flat wagons, Rationalisation of Coal Tariff, withdrawal  of  Port  Congestion  Charge,  Rationalisation  of  Merry-GoRound (MGR) system, reduction of minimum distance for charge from 125 km to 100 km, Distance increased for mini rake from 400 km to 600 km, Proliferation of Roll-on Roll-off (RORO) services, denotification of 44 additional commodities for charging at FAK rates, withdrawal of  congestion  charge for stone   traffic  transported from

Eastern Railway to Bangladesh via Darsana/ Benapole.

- ii. The  methodology  for  levying  Terminal  Access  Charge  (TAC)  for handling container train in railway terminal has been liberalised from 1.5  times  to  one  time  in  case  of  double  operation  (i.e.  unloading followed by loading), reduces non-freight cost to customer.
- iii. Indian Railways has taken an innovative business decision to transport empty containers and empty flat wagon  for private container  rakes  at  a  discount  of  25%.  The  move  is  likely  to  give  a thrust to movement of empty container by rail towards ports to return as loaded, thus profiting Indian Railways with higher container share.
- iv. Use  of  extensive  computerization  in  freight  operation  to  improve monitoring and to improve utilization of assets, deployment of higher capacity  locomotives  and  higher  capacity  wagons,  improvement  in maintenance  practices  of  wagons  and  locomotives  resulting  in increased availability of rolling stock for traffic, improvement in track and signaling to carry the higher volume of traffic, training staff and officers to adopt the new technology and management practices.
- v. Two  Dedicated  Freight  Corridors  (Western  &  Eastern  Dedicated Freight Corridors) have been taken up to create adequate capacity, which  is  essential  requirement  to  cater  the  traffic  demand  and improve quality of service.

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