Ease of doing business with Railway gets a solid boost in India

New Delhi, India (Urban Transport News): Indian Railways is the backbone of the country's logistics sector. During 2020, when most of the activities were under lockdown, Indian Railways was providing relentless services in Freight transportation in the country. Indian Railways achieved the highest ever loading continuously in September, October, November and December 2020.

Indian Railways has embraced a “Freight on Priority” policy by pushing for an aggressive customer-centric approach to expand the freight carried not only from the traditional segments but also by attracting new customers to its fold. 

In its commitment to take the level of customer services to new heights, Piyush Goyal, Minister for Railways, Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution has launched today (i.e. 05.01.2021) a Freight Business Development Portal as a one-stop solution for all the needs of freight customers.

Goyal said that Indian Railway is an invisible thread that connects the length and breadth of India. During the lockdown, Railway showed its resolve in delivering the essential supplies to the nation in the most challenging times and keep national supply chains running. The new portal will be a game-changer in ensuring ease of doing business with Railways. The portal will ensure that the best services are available to the clients. He said that the last 6 years have seen extraordinary development in all spheres of Railway operations under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Indian Railway is getting future-ready. The commitment of Railways to further improve the services is unflinching. The greatness of Railways would not just be in being better than someone else but being the BEST.

First of its kind dedicated Freight portal will ensure that all operations stay customer-centric, reduce the costs for logistics providers, provide an online tracking facility for suppliers and also simplify the process of goods transportation.

Freight Business Development portal has been designed to replace physical processes with online ones to minimize the need of human to human interaction.  The Portal has been specially designed and developed keeping in mind the varied needs of all existing as well as new customers with a focus on ease of doing business, to bring more transparency and to provide professional support. 

In the month of December 2020, Indian Railways loading was 118.13 million tonnes which is 8.54% higher compared to last year’s loading for the same period (108.84 million tonnes).In this period Indian Railways earned Rs. 11788.11 crores from freight loading which is also Rs. 757.74 crores (6.87%) higher compared to last year’s earnings for the same period (Rs. 11030.37 crores).

Indian Railways has taken a series of steps taken by to boost Freight loading like the setting up of Business Development Units (BDUs) at the Railway Board, Zonal Railway and Divisional levels. Multi-disciplinary teams from BDUs have been reaching out to customers to attract new business by providing compelling value-for-money logistics solutions. The BDUs have scored several early successes by attracting new business from customers who had never used rail in the past. Also, a number of concessions/ discounts are also being given in Indian Railways to make Railways Freight movement very attractive.