Indian Railways will roll out a new scheme from Thursday which will help in decongesting Delhi’s traffic and lowering its pollution levels by transporting thousands of commercial trucks by rail so that they will not have to cross the national Capital on way to their respective destinations.
Nearly 60,000 trucks cross Delhi everyday on the way to Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, etc.
“The Railway Ministry will launch the Ro-Ro (Roll-on Roll-off) service for Delhi-NCR to carry loaded trucks on goods train in a bid to attract more freight and reduce carbon emission as part of a green transport initiative,” a Railway official said.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu in his Budget speech in 2016 had announced the action plan to expand the freight basket through either containerisation or new delivery models like Ro-Ro, which can provide multimodal transport mix. Ro-Ro services in India were first started by the Konkan Railway three years ago and then by the East Coast Railway last year.
The pilot project for green transportation in Delhi-NCR will be kicked off by Prabhu from Gurugram on Thursday when 30 loaded trucks will roll on to the flat wagons from Garhi Harsaru station for Muradnagar in UP.
The Ro-Ro services that will provide an option to heavy and light commercial vehicles to bypass Delhi-NCR, envision decongesting the region by loading the vehicles onto railway flat wagons at designated stations and unloading them out of the national Capital. This would substantially reduce air pollution across the NCR.
This initiative would allow movement of trucks in the day, which was restricted earlier from 7 am to 11 pm. Queues at entry points will get reduced and save considerable amount of time besides providing adequate rest to truck drivers during the Ro-Ro run.
A senior Railway official said that the initiative would benefit truck operators in many ways including saving toll taxes, fuel and Environment Compensation Charge which is anything between Rs 1,400 to Rs 2,600. “Railway freight tariff would be more economical than the cost incurred on the road. It will also lead to reduction in road accidents,” he added.
There are 127 entry/exit points for the NCR, with nine major entry/exit points accounting for 75 per cent of commercial light and heavy duty truck traffic.
Besides the Ro-Ro services, long-term business agreements with various freight customers like manufacturers of cement, steel, fertilisers and food grains will also be firmed up to increase loadings as part of the new action plan. Prabhu will announce a series of measures unveiling the new business plan-2017-18 to perk up Railway revenue.
The new business plan-2017-18 will also unveil double stack dwarf containers for the movement of goods from Punjab to Gujarat on the electrified route. With a height of 12 feet 8 inches, dwarf containers are specially designed keeping the overhead electric wires in mind to carry maximum goods. Double stack containers are generally 17 feet high.