Secunderabad: Railways start deliveries to end-customers

Secunderabad: In a novel initiative of bringing the railways to the doorstep of the customer, the Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) in association with Secunderabad division have started the first rake of door-to-door containerised movement of cement today. The first rake which has started from Jaggayyapet station to Shalimar, Kolkata in West Bengal was flaggedoff on Wednesday by AK Gupta, Divisional Railway Manager, Secunderabad, through virtual mode.

Moving closer to customers, Railways have been promoting innovative solutions to assist freight customers. As part of it, the CONCOR has come up with a solution of not only pickingup the commodities directly from the factory to the Railways station but also of delivering the same to the end-customers who include bulk consumers, dealers, etc. Accordingly, CONCOR decided starting this operation from Jaggayyapet station and requested Secunderabad division on March 4.

Acting with alacrity on the same, the division undertook all the necessary development activities like road levelling, clearing of PWAY material, vehicle crossing check rails, tower lighting for night operations and converting 3rd loop line to top wiring line within a short span of 15 days with local resources and no additional cost. This has paved for the starting the inaugural rake on Wednesday.

The first rake in lift-on and lift-off mode was loaded on March 31 from Jaggayyapet station transporting cement from KCP Cements to Shalimar in West Bengal, earning a freight of Rs 20 lakh.

The benefits of this new initiative include avoidance of multiple handling of the commodities, be it from factory to railways or from railways to goods shed/warehouse and then again to the dealers and ultimately to the customers; One stop transport solution to the supplier as well as customer; Reduction of any enroute pilferages/damages and establishment of a container handling terminal at a place like Jaggayyapet will give a fillip to the industry around, especially the cement industry with no rail connectivity enabling them to avail the benefits of long lead rail transportation.

SCR General Manager Gajanan Mallya appreciated the efforts of the CONCOR and Secunderabad Team to start this novel initiative. He opined that this is one more step taken to bring the Railways closer to the customer and is likely to strengthen the ongoing efforts of the Railways to diversify into new streams of traffic. He advised the team to continue the momentum to expand the freight basket of South Central Railway.