Mamata revises Lalu's 'unrealistic' freight goal

With the railways missing its freight traffic target for 2008-09, thanks to the slowdown, the new railways minister couldn't resist blaming her predecessor for setting 'unrealistic' goals and moderated the targets set by Lalu Prasad for 2009-10. "The primary cause for the shortfall appears to have been the economic slowdown. This has forced me to review the targets set for 2009-10 in the interim Budget. Based on the review, it is clear that the unrealistically high target set in the interim Budget are not sustainable and warrant a mid-course correction," Mamata Banerjee said.

Citing the continued trend of 'recession in the manufacturing sector and exports', Banerjee has revised the target of 910 million tonne (mt) set for 2009-10 in the interim Budget downwards to 882 mt. This would translate into an incremental loading of 49 mt over the previous year. Yet, Didi expects freight earnings of Rs 58,525 crore in 2009-10, Rs 5,092 crore more than its 2008-09 freight income.

Significantly, the Budget expects freight traffic from iron ore meant for exports to slide to 130.82 million tonne from the 133.05 million tonne it carried in 2008-09 - with expected revenue to dip from Rs 8,494.75 crore to Rs 7,895.62 crore this fiscal.

However, the budget was optimistic about coal traffic that constitutes nearly 45% of its total freight - it expects steel plants, washeries, thermal power houses and other coal consumers to take traffic to 403.53 million tonne, up from 373.75 million tonne recorded in 2008-09.

Though the budget has kept freight unchanged, it is looking for ways to attract traffic from other modes of transport to generate additional revenue. Besides improving the loading of existing commodities carried by railways like coal, iron ore, cement, fertilizers and food grains, Banerjee is seeking to increase share in new traffic streams like automobiles, fly ash among others.

To this end, the Railways will allow containers to access private sidings so as to attract piecemeal traffic. Currently, established industries like cement plants, fertilizer plants and power plants among others have their own private siding which can be used only by the owners. As such, the facilities at these sidings are not completely utilised. Experts argue that with the railways now permitting container operators to access these private sidings has increased the prospect of starting rail freight service from more centres.

Further the railway is also considering a premium service for container movement with assured transit time for time-sensitive cargo. "Currently there is no guarantee that the cargo will reach the port in time for shipment. With assured transit time, the importers and exporters would feel more comfortable using rail services rather than any other modes of transport," said Association of Container Train Operators president RC Dubey.