South Eastern Railway’s Business Development Unit attracts new Freight Traffic

South Eastern Railway has already set up Business Development Unit (BDU) at its zonal headquarters, Kolkata headed by Chief Freight Transportation Manager along with functional units at its four divisions viz. Kharagpur, Adra, Ranchi and Chakradharpur under Sr. Divisional Operations Manager.

Objective of setting up Business Development Unit:

  • The main objective of setting up such Business Development Unit is to fetch new traffic by making rail transport as more competitive than other transportation modes. 
  • This Unit is regularly meeting with different Chambers of Commerce and trade bodies to apprise of various discounts schemes to attract customers for transportation of their goods traffic by rail. 
  • The Business Development Unit is also taking into consideration new proposals, schemes and suggestions submitted by the different freight aggregators, new customers, trade bodies and logistics companies.
  • Any proposal received from the traders will be given top priority and analysed promptly.
  • Indian Railways has already liberalized various policies as a part of o­n-going ease of business and offering various discount schemes to attract the freight customers.

South Eastern Railway meanwhile has already achieved significant development in the following sectors:

  • Cement loading started from Dalmia Cement, Salboni.
  • Sand Loading fromRadhanagar.
  • Steel & Slag Loading from Bandhdih.
  • Short Lead Traffic from Rourkela Steel Plant and Tata Steel Long Products, Gamharia.
  • Fly Ash Loading from Tatanagar.
  • Quartzite Loading from Birarajpur.
  • Ballast Loading from Gundabihar.
  • Loading of Stone Chips from Gola Road.

Apart from the above, development in other following sectors:

  • Coal loading from Bankura and Barpalli
  • Steel loading from Chaurasi and Barbil.
  • Loading of Containers from Rourkela and Tata CRT.
  • Clinker and Slag Loading from Haldia Port.
  • Loading of Pig Iron from Rashmi Metaliks Siding at Nimpura to Paradeep.

Background:

With a view to extend the freight basket of Indian Railways, there is an urgent need to take planned measures to increase the existing volume of freight traffic. For this, South Eastern Railway (SER) is making all out efforts to increase its share in traditional commodities being carried and a strong foray is made into miscellaneous non-bulk goods.

  • To attract these miscellaneous non-bulk commodities for transportation by rail, South Eastern Railway, as per the directives given by Railway Board, decided to set up a multi-disciplinary Business Development Unit (BDU) comprising of Senior Officers from various Departments at Zonal level coordinated by Chief Freight Transportation Manager. 
  • The main objective of such BDUs will be to put forward lucrative offers to fetch business from the traders and industries by frequent interactions with them. 
  • Any proposal received from the traders will be given top priority and analysed promptly.
  • The BDUs will also be functional at Railway Board level with a view to facilitate and give clearance to the proposals received from the zonal Railways. 

Source: South Eastern Railway-Press Release | Image Credit: South Eastern Railway