Railways to build 500 private freight terminals in 3 years

Govt working on freeing policies to attract private investment to rail sector

In a bid to boost private investment in rail sector, Indian Railways is aiming to build 500 private freight terminals (PFT) in next three years under public private partnership (PPP) model, Union Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha said here on Wednesday.

Further, to attract more investment in rail sector, the central government is working on liberalising policies, Sinha said.

Sinha was here to inaugurate a PFT set up by Continental Warehousing Corporation (NhavaSeva) Limited (CWCNSL), a flagship company of the NDR Group at Sachana village of Viramgam taluka in Ahmedabad district. "Private investment can play major role in growth of rail sector. Under PPP model, Indian Railway will set up 500 PFT in next three years," Sinha said in his address during the inauguration.

Currently there are 27 PFT in India.

According to Sinha, government is working on investor friendly atmosphere to attract investment from private players in railway sector. "We will make changes in policy to attract more investment from private companies. We will come up with transparent policy which will be investor friendly," he added.

It needs to be mentioned here that during April and December 2015, freight traffic of Indian Railway increased by 1.01% to 816.71 million tonnes as against 808.57 tonnes in corresponding period last year while earnings went up by 6.57% to Rs 80,977.38 crore from Rs 75,985.56 crore during the time.

In 2014-15, Indian Railways' freight traffic registered a growth of 4.18% to stand at 1,097.57 million tonnes as against 1,053.56 million tonnes in 2013-14. On the other hand, earnings increased by 12.67% to Rs 105,312.09 crore in 2014-15 from Rs 93,471.59 crore in 2013-14.

On its part, the NDR Group announced setting up of three new freight terminals in Panipat, Bangalore and Chennai by end of 2016. As of now, the group has one freight terminal in Hyderabad since 2012.

"By end of 2016, we will set up three more freight terminals in India which will double our storage area from 500,000 sq ft to one million sq ft," said N. Adikesavulu Reddy, Chairman and managing director, CWCNSL.