New Delhi: Alarm bells are ringing in the Railways with estimates suggesting that not only it would fail to meet the freight target for this year, but achieving even last year’s performance would be a challenge. Freight movement, which forms the lifeline of Railways, has taken a hit, with not much demand for traditional items, including coal, iron ore, besides road sector hurting rail revenue.
“When the Narendra Modi government was formed, the coal stocks with power plants had dipped to mere four days of reserve. Now they have coal stock for as much as 160 days, and they’re not asking us to move coal to their plants any more. This alone has hit the Railways most hard,” said a senior rail board member.
Union railways minister Suresh Prabhu in his maiden budget had set a target for 1,190 million tonnes of freight against 1,086 million tonnes seen in the last financial year. “The target will be missed and we will be lucky if we could even meet the last year’s performance,” added the official.
With rapid investment in the road sector, which is arguably not matched by the same in the rail networks, the Railways had majorly lost the freight share in movement of goods up to 300 kms earlier. “The share of Railways in freight has come below 30 per cent and now transporters prefer roads even for a distance of upto 600 kms. If this trend continues, the financial health of the Railways will only bleed,” said the official.
The Railways had reached out to various industry bodies to get feedback to stop the slump in freight share, but it was asked in turn to cut down the loading charges by five per cent. “Cutting down the charges will not help as the volume growth in freight does not seem possible in near future and could further affect our revenue,” said the official. The Railways has seen depleting movement of coal, steel, iron ore, cement, and foodgrains in the current year.
“We are studying to broaden the basket of non-conventional goods to make up for the loss in conventional items, and will be focusing more on movement of parcels, horticulture, white goods like marble, textile, limestone and granite. A detailed study is being undertaken,” said the official.
