According to officials aware of the plan, more lucrative financial terms have also been offered to private concessionaires for setting up dedicated container terminals for the Indian Railways. Loading and unloading of bulk cargo, such as coal and iron ore, will be banned from these container terminals.
“Container terminals will be spread across the country, with five in Maharashtra, four in Tamil Nadu, three in Rajasthan and two in Delhi and Haryana each,” a top official aware of the plan told ET. Such terminals are also proposed in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, the official added.
Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh will also host exclusive container rail terminals, according to the official.Container loading on the Indian Railways stood at 85.58 million tonne (mt) in 2023-24, up from 79.22 mt in the preceding year. Of this, over 80% containers ferried by the railways were for exim trade. The 2024-25 budget projects 91 mt of container loading on the Indian Railways, raking in Rs 9,164.47 crore revenue.
Private sector players will be encouraged to invest in developing the container terminals. They will be allowed to recover investment through concessional loading charges.
Eligible freight train operators will also be given the benefit of hub-and-spoke model at these terminals. “The hub-and-spoke approach allows freight train operators to consolidate containers from multiple locations and move them on the Indian Railways while retaining the benefit of charges eligible for long distance cargo transport, instead of having to pay higher short distance rates that accrue if cargo were to be re-booked at the hub points,” Manish Puri, president of the Association of Container Train Operators, told ET.
In addition to this, the new guidelines allow storage of containers at terminals and letting freight terminal operators take advantage of higher volumes.
“Indian Railways was charging higher terminal access charges if the container loading exceeded certain levels. Under the new policy, there will be a flat charge, encouraging further containerisation of cargo,” he said.
