Automotive industry demands Railways to increase freight carriage

The auto industry has asked the Indian Railways to make available sufficient, improved infrastructure as it plans to ramp up freight transportation through railways.

New Delhi:Indian Railways has received a demand to make available sufficient and improved infrastructure to ramp up freight transportation through railways, ahead of the unprecedented slowdown in the sales of automobile sector.

While speaking to the media, Purnendu Shekhar Mishra, Member Traffic, Railway Board, said, "Indian Railways has received a demand from companies including Honda, Mahindra, Kia Motors, and Ford India among others, for new rakes that are being tested with design and development arm of the Indian Railways."

This comes in the wake of announcement regarding a series of measures taken by Railways to give a boost to the various sectors of the industry. For this, it has also waived off, temporarily, certain freight charges.

Further to the demand from the auto industry, the national transporter is also planning to increase the share of automobile in its freight basket to around 8-10% by the end of the current financial year as against 2% at present.

"We had only 2 percent business in automobile dispatches, from production points to consuming points. That we are trying to increase by extending the supply of rakes," said Mishra.

Railways is also planning to increase the share of automobile in its freight basket to around 8-10 percent by the end of the current financial year.

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