BENGALURU: The first Roll-on Roll-Off (RO-RO) Service of the South Western Railway Zone that carried trucks on its open wagons has completely ground to a halt in the last five months. Reason: lack of financial viability of the service.
The maiden trip from Nelamangala in Bengaluru Rural to Bale in Solapur district of Maharashtra was flagged off jointly on August 30, 2020, by late Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi and Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa. However, it returned midway after completing just 13 kms out of its proposed 682 kms, an ominous indication perhaps that the unique venture would remain a non-starter. The debut run was repeated on September 1 and the trip was successfully completed with 28 drivers onboard the 26 trucks leashed with steel chains onto the rakes.
Each wagon allowed a maximum load of 30 tonnes. RO-RO's return trip from Bale began on September 6 with 15 trucks on it and it reached Nelamangala the next day. However, this first round trip has proved to be it's last as well.
The brainchild of late Angadi, the service was quite a challenge right from the beginning as the Konkan Railway is the only corporation in the country successfully operating such a service. The Bengaluru Division leased these rakes from them.
Jitendra Infrastructure and Reality, the concern tasked with aggregating trucks for every trip, had an onerous task before the launch as it had to build ramps and roads in front of the originating and terminating stations to facilitate the passage of trucks to the trains.
Asked about the reasons why this meticulously planned venture was now grounded, Yogendra Sharma, Railway Consultant, who preparing the Detailed Project Report for RO-RO told The New Indian Express, "The Railways failed to recognise RORO as a special kind of commodity service. The rates fixed by the Railway Board were similar to that it charged for commodities like coal and this ended up costly for the transporters when compared to road. Companies were not coming forward to avail this service by paying more."
Specifying details, Sharma said, "The freight rates for rail were fixed at Rs 1,350 per tonne this worked out to Rs 2 per tonne per km. The road rates came to Rs 1.28 per tonne per km. Konkan Railway only charges Rs 1.10 per km. I had clearly recommended the rates had to be competitive with road charges to make it a success."
Another major pricing flaw is that Railways charges on a full-truck basis which meant that a customer with just 17 or 18 tonnes in a truck ended up paying for 30 tonnes, the expert added.
Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, Bengaluru Division, N R Krishna Reddy said, "The RO-RO service has been temporarily put on hold due to financial issues. We have requested the Railway Board to modify prices so that it proves viable for all concerned. The issue is being regularly discussed and even last week we spoke about it. We will work out a solution soon to restart the service."