As recession hits nation, dedicated freight corridor may get operational

Augmenting freight operations through better marketing, cheaper tariff and discount packages has been on the railway agenda

By 2023, the Indian Railways plans to have private passenger trains running on its network at a maximum speed of 160 kilometre an hour (kmph). Equally ambitious is its target to have a bullet train running between Ahmedabad and Mumbai at a maximum speed of 320 kmph by December 2023. The focus of the government-run Railway Board, the apex decision- and policy-making body for the Indian Railways, is clearly on passenger travel — getting in newer operators while giving an air travel feel on railway tracks. In this quest for speed, the bread and butter for the railway system, freight