The Railway Ministry has notified the Roll-on Roll-off (RORO) service for transporting goods-laden vehicles between Karnataka and Maharashtra to ensure the smooth flow of essential commodities.
A RORO train does not have bogies or wagons. It pulls along a long metal platform on which lorries with goods are loaded. The driver and cleaner of the lorries sit in their vehicles. They are dropped at a particular point from which they drive off.
The running of RORO trains is a common practice on the Konkan Railway route.
A trial run of the service between Bale near Solapur in Maharashtra and Nelamangala near Bengaluru began on April 2.
Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi claimed he had overseen the speedy approval of this trial. “I had been urging the Railway Minister Piyush Goyal for some time to start this service as it ensures large-scale goods movement and reduces pollution. This is most essential during the lockdown. The officers have promised me that this will be a regular service once the trial run is over,” he said.
Owing to the COVID-19 lockdown, passenger trains have been stopped, but goods trains are running to transport items across the country.
The new service will remove existing bottlenecks in the transport of commodities between the two States, and facilitate safer, speedier, and more reliable transport, according to officials.
“The RORO service reduces accidents on road, thereby improving safety, saves fuel, and foreign exchange. It ensures faster transport of essential goods, perishables, food items and smaller cargo. The cost of transport is lesser than transport by road as the freight is chargeable at ₹2,700 per tonne for a round trip. The Minister has appealed to manufacturers and traders to use the RORO service extensively,” said Aneesh Hegde, Public Relations Officer, to the Minister, said.
