GUWAHATI, May 28 - With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide lockdown resulting in challenges to transportation of goods and commodities, the Indian Railways has taken certain steps to incentivise freight traffic.
Senior officials in the Maligaon-headquartered Northeast Frontier Railways said that the measures are intended to enhance price-competitiveness and facilitate ease of doing business, besides ensuring that both suppliers and consumers do not face unnecessary hassles.
�Such steps are especially important in regions like the North East which is geographically far away from the major industrial hubs. Our zone has benefited from the measures taken in this regard,� said an official.
He said that relaxations in freight transportation are among the incentives taken by the Railways.
Indian Railways offers schemes for customers who want to book less than the standard length rakes or who want to book rakes originating at two points or having two different destinations.
�Some relaxations have been made in these schemes. The distance restriction for mini rakes has been extended up to 1,500 km for both inter-zonal and intra-zonal traffic, from 600 km. Similarly, there was a distance restriction for rakes originating at two points that two loading points should not be apart by more than 200 km in lean season and 400 km in the busy season to ensure optimal utilisation of rakes. It has now been relaxed to allow loading points to be apart up to 500 km in all seasons,� said the official.
He added, �Besides, there are a prescribed number of wagons to be loaded for availing train load benefit. If lesser than this number of wagons are booked than wagon-load rates apply, which are a bit higher. Relaxation in this has been granted to BCNHL wagons, which are a type of covered wagons primarily used for bagged consignments like foodgrains and agricultural products. The minimum number of wagons to be loaded for availing train load benefit in such cases has been reduced from 57 wagons to 42 wagons with a view to supporting the loading of essential food items.�
Levy of demurrage, wharfage and other ancillary charges has been suspended in case of goods and parcel traffic. Besides, detention charge and ground usage charge have been done away with for container traffic.
The Indian Railways has extended the Electronic Registration of Demand (E-RD) and the Electronic Transmission of Railway Receipt (ET-RR) facilities for iron and steel, iron ore and salt traffic.
�E-RD provides the facility to customers to register their demands for goods electronically instead of having to visit the goods sheds physically. The system is faster than the conventional model and also more transparent. As far as ET-RR is concerned, it is a step above the paperless transaction system. Under it, the railway receipt is also generated and transmitted electronically to the customer through the Freight Operations Information System (FOIS),� said the official.
Besides, even delivery of goods is given through e-surrender of ET-RR. This eliminates the need for a customer to travel to the goods shed for demand registration, receiving return receipts invoice and for taking delivery of goods.
He added that Indian Railways is expected to introduce more such incentives in the coming days as the national transporter seeks to further streamline its freight operations in the post-lockdown period.
