Railways may tap e-commerce, auto, FMCG sectors to boost freight revenue

The Indian Railways is expected to tap the fast-growing e-commerce sector in India, the automobile sector and the FMCG sector, in a bid to give a boost to its freight revenue. 

In the run up to the union budget, Indian Railways is planning to look into various new avenues and models which may help it increase the revenue it makes from transporting goods, according to a report in The Hindu.

Here are some new solutions that the Indian Railways may consider: 

-- Road Railers, good to travel on roads as well as rails, in a bid to enable door-to-door transportation of goods. 

The government has already carried out a trial run for Road Railers. It may soon be introduced on the Delhi-Chennai route, the report said. 

-- RO-RO (Roll on, roll off): Railways is expected to explore a mechanism which may allow fully-loaded trucks to merely roll onto the train coach and roll off it at its destination. According to the report, Konkan Railways allows the RO-RO service since 1999. 

-- The Railways is also expected to do an in-depth study of nearly 46 commodities to gauge potential sectors to grow its freight traffic.