Indian Railways must diversify its freight portfolio, says report

The Indian Railways will ha­ve to diversify its freight portfolio to meet the goals of having a larger share of the total goods movement in the country.

According to a joint report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) and CRISIL Risk and Infras­tructure Solutions, the Indian Railways should focus on capturing new fre­ight opportunities in the tran­sport of cement, steel and automobiles, among others.

Another key proposal is to allow private players to run trains on the dedicated fre­ight corridors. As per the institutional arrangement envisaged for operations of DFCs, IR will be the sole customer for DFCCIL, which will provide the infrastructure for the operation of trains. “This is one of the models followed in many countries and several players operating internationally may be interested in investing and operating in this area,” the report said.

The paper was released by Rail Minister Piyush Goyal. 

Speaking at the event, he said, “Freight trains are part of a new table that will be coming out.”