Railways' freight target fixed at 726 million tonnes

New Delhi, May 19 (UNI) The government today said the freight loading target for the Railways had been fixed at 726 million tonnes and freight output at 479 billion tonne kilometres during 2006-07.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Railways R. Velu said freight revenues for the current fiscal had been estimted at Rs 40320 crore.

Listing the measures to increase the freight revenues, Mr Velu said schemes like Freight Forwarder, Traditional Empty Flow Direction Freight Discount, Loyalty Discount, Long-Term Special Incentive,, Mini-Rake, Two-Point Rake and Wagon Investment Scheme (WIS) had worked wonders for the Railways.

In addition, development of rail-side warehousing complexes through public-private partnership and liberalisation of sliding rules had also enormously helped the freight business.

Replying to another query, the minister said 14 private operators, who had applied to run container trains, had been given 'in-principle' approval.

Under the scheme, private players will procure their own rolling stocks and have a suitable access to a rail-linked Inland Container Depot (ICD) and they will have to pay to the Railways haulage charges applicable uniformly to all operators.

About the concern of industry sources that container services would be facing hurdles due to shortage of wheels and axles, Mr Velu said private parties should import wheels and axles to meet their requirements.

''The Indian Railways are also importing wheels and axles to meet the shortfall in their requirements,'' he said.

UNI SKS YA DS1406