Chugging along the sustainability track, the railway holds tremendous potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and an opportunity for logistic providers

Transition from Road to rail’, a topic of great traction from all quarters, is finally gaining heat with the concerted efforts from all the stakeholders – government, logistics players and the user fraternity. But why is this shift necessary? According to some research estimates, Rail produces 75% fewer CO2 emissions per tonne-kilometre than that of road freight transport. This wake-up call is for the industries to switch to alternative modes of transport.

As per the Boston Consulting Group, “No form of mass transport has more potential to aid in the fight against global warming than rail. It is one of the most energy-efficient transport modes, responsible for 9% of global motorized passenger movement and 7% of freight shipping—but only 3% of transport energy use, according to the International Energy Agency.

In fact, a Niti Ayog study found that the transition would help encourage cleaner fuels, India can save 10 Giga tonnes of CO2, 500-kilo tonnes of particulate matter (PM) and 15 million tonnes of nitrogen oxide (NOx) caused by freight transport by 2050.

Despite having the fourth largest network of railways globally, about 71% of inland cargo transportation in the country happens via road, and just about 17% of cargo is moved via rail. Road transportation is not just time-consuming; it also results in massive greenhouse gas emissions while Rail emits about one-fifth of trucks’ GHG emissions.

The Promising Landscape

As per the Ministry of Railways, the Government has set a target of 33% emissions intensity reduction, with the transport sector being one of the key sectors with substantial emission mitigation potential. One of the most vital transportation emissions mitigation strategies agreed to by the Government of India was increasing the share of Indian Railways in the movement of freight from the current ~35-36% to 45% by 2030.” To achieve this, Indian Railways has prepared a National Rail Plan (NRP) for India – 2030.

There has been a massive investment lined up towards the development of Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs), which is touted as the most important step towards increasing the efficiency of this sector. The first phase of the DFCs project alone is estimated to reduce emissions by about 457-million-ton CO2 over a 30-year period. Looking at the promising potential this project holds, in this year’s Union Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman allocated Rs27,482 crore to the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCC) for the financial year 2023-24 (FY24). As a result, the regular operation of freight trains has been started on the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC), the country’s largest railway line for freight and almost 60% of the freight trains operations on the main New Delhi-Howrah (up to Chunar) have switched on to EDFC.

Additionally, modal integration across, rail, road, and sea freight and the investments for better train-port-road integration are also important factors that will reinforce the Indian rail freight industry. To top it all, robust private sector investments and the public-private partnership for project financing are only accentuating this shift. Railways are also working to improve energy efficiency for both diesel and electric traction to further reduce GHG emissions.

Though capturing a smaller share compared to road transportation as of date, a swift switch from road to rail would mean lesser emissions, lesser congestion on roads, effective utilization of all transportation modes and a highly efficient end-to-end logistical network. With policymakers fast acting to advance the rail infrastructure, a golden opportunity awaits the logistics players to capture major market share by acing their rail freight proposition.

(The writer is President-CJ DARCL Logistics)