Suneet Sharma, General Manager, Eastern Railway met the media in a virtual press conference today (9.9.2020) at ER’s Headquarters, Fairlie Place. Speaking on the occasion, the GM narrated various initiatives taken for further growth of freight traffic. He highlighted lucrative rebates and concessions made for the growth of freight revenue. He spoke on different customer-friendly schemes, to attract freight business especially those diverted to different other modes of transportation. Sharma pointed out that Eastern Railway has crossed 50 kmph in May 2020 and attained 62.1 kmph in September 2020 as an average speed of goods train in the direction of mobility constraint removal. He said that 21 wagon mini rakes are permitted for long distances, 10 wagon rakes permitted in the traditional empty flow direction to target piecemeal traffic and export traffic to Bangladesh permitted in parcel vans & containers.
Suneet Sharma said that thrust has been given on parcel traffic. Timetabled parcel express trains are introduced to 7 destinations from 3 stations in Kolkata area – Howrah, Sealdah & Kolkata. Minimum composition of parcel express trains reduced from 20 parcel vans to 15 and only 10 parcel vans for perishables and en route stoppages are increased as per demand – all for the convenience of the business community. He said encouragement has been given to container traffic, traffic from Kolkata Port to Bangladesh via Benapole and steps have been taken to de-congest and improve goods shed terminals and sidings. Improvement of existing goods sheds – road connectivity, loading and warehousing area, lighting facility, drinking water, amenities for labour and merchants are provided to attract the business houses.
He further pointed out that Business Development Units have been set up in ER in Headquarters & Divisional level to offer various lucrative concessions as per the new liberalized freight policy to increase more freight traffic. These Business Development Units (BDUs) are regularly meeting with different chambers of commerce and trade bodies to appraise of comparative discounts and concessional schemes for customer satisfaction. Meetings with stakeholders are conducted both Zonal level and Divisional level. As a result, new traffic streams were captured like sand from Asansol Division (110 rakes), fly ash from Sagardighi Thermal Power Plant (13 rakes), fly ash from NTPC, Kahalgaon (18 rakes), mixed small traffic aggregated for Bangladesh (10 rakes), container traffic to Bangladesh (4 rakes), maize & onion traffic to Bangladesh (24 rakes). Side by side, new traffic exploring initiatives are on the unvail.
During 2020-21, 807 parcel trains ran carrying 28684-tonne commodities earning revenue of 9.22 crore. The GM said that during lockdown important infrastructural, innovative and long-pending engineering works were completed. He highlighted different passenger amenities and facilities offered to the Rail users. He said that ER is exploring alternative energy resources for a sustainable environment, roof-top solar panels installed at 39 stations of Eastern Railway. Moreover, renewable energy sources were also commissioned at several major stations like Sealdah, Malda, Asansol & Kolkata.
The basic objective of today’s press conference is to demonstrate that Railway provides a safe, secured, economical and pollution-free mode of transportation at every direction of the country.
