NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways has allowed the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corp (DFC) to offer discounts for roll-on-roll-off (RORO) services for increasing business opportunities.
The railways administratively treats the DFC as a zonal railway. This allows the railway board to fix freight tariffs on the corridor, officials familiar with the matter said.
According to a recent order from the Railway Board, the focus is to enhance the modal share and give attention to unconventional new traffic and, in this respect, it has decided to allow DFC to grant concession, or quote special rates, for intra-DFC traffic.
This comes after industry made a representation before the Government about the tariffs charged by the DFC.
The move is targeted towards companies that would like to have their loaded or unloaded trucks driven on to railway rakes and transported over a distance on the railway network.
From there, the trucks are driven to the final destination.
The DFC is a railway network developed specifically for moving freight or goods-laden trains. This approach allows speedier movement of passenger trains and unhindered movement of goods-laden trains. India is currently developing two such corridors, the 1,504-kilometre-long Western DFC and the 1,875-km Eastern DFC.
DFC officials said the discount offer could be expanded to other segments such as container movement as well, but the development was at a very early stage. "Discussions need to internally take place before any discounts are formalised,” an official said.
“DFC can offer a discount only for freight that originates and terminates within the freight corridor network,” the official added.
The Indian Railways had formalised charges for the RORO service in July. The rates are estimated to be comparable with road tariff, according to people in the know. This service was extensively used during the Covid-19 pandemic to ferry trucks carrying oxygen containers to hospitals.
A senior Railway Ministry official had said recently that this approach was feasible if multiple trucks were traveling over a similar route. There is a cost saving element as the transporter saves on fuel and toll.
