To explore the possibility of attracting additional freight traffic to railways, Salem Railway Division has established a Business Development Unit (BDU) here recently.
A press release from the division said that the divisional-level unit aims at focusing on doubling the freight carried by railways by 2024.
M. Harikumar, Senior Divisional Operations Manager, is the convener of the unit. “The committee will have frequent interactions with the trade and industry to understand the existing pattern of goods transportation and will look for new business opportunities”, the release said and added that the unit will also serve as a nodal point for speedy operationalisation of any new traffic proposals.
The release said that freight traffic of Salem Division is back on the track of recovery, post the nationwide lockdown, and has increased from 0.067 tonne in April 2020 to 0.227 tonne in May, 2020 and 0.245 tonne in June, 2020. Also, traffic in several commodities has been increasing and in some commodities, has even crossed last year’s level of loading, the release added.
U. Subba Rao, Divisional Railway Manager, Southern Railway, has advised members of the newly-formed Business Development Committee to have regular interactions with both the existing and new customers, so that focus is given equally to improve the freight traffic in both the segments.
Special Correspondent adds from Coimbatore
Southern Railways officials had a virtual meeting with Coimbatore District Small Industries Association (Codissia) office bearers recently on “Parcel Cargo Express Train Services”. The Railways has come out with several new features to support MSMEs through its parcel cargo transport facilities.
Codissia president R. Ramamurthy said this is a beginning and the MSMEs can benefit from it. “Any effort that will help the MSMEs bring down the costs should be welcomed,” he said. “We have asked the Railways to provide end-to-end service so that they engage service provider to pick the parcels from the industries, transport it by rail and take it to the industries or dealers in the destination cities. They have agreed to look into it,” he said.
Currently, only large sectors such as steel and cement and industries such as pumpset and wetgrinder manufacturers here make use of rail connectivity. Other MSME sectors can also look into it as the Railways is now willing to book on a daily basis or for long term any volume of cargo, he said.
The meeting was to create awareness among the MSMEs on the service provided by the Railways, he said.
