Rail logistics firm by July

The new entity, Transloc, will build freight related facilities

New Delhi, March 19: The Indian Railways will set up a new stateowned entity, Transloc, by July to handle transport logistics, a senior official said on Thursday.

“The railways have already moved a Cabinet note to this effect. We expect the new entity (Transloc) would be created in next four to five months to attain the objectives of implementing railways projects through public private partnership (PPP) route,” said a PHD chamber of commerce press release quoting rail ministry ED-traffic/PPP M.S. Mathur.

Addressing a conference organised by the chamber, he said: “The Cabinet clearance is keenly awaited for set- ting up of Transport Logistics Corporation (Transloc) of India.”

In his budget speech last month, rail minister Suresh Prabhu had proposed to set up the public sector unit and said, “Indian railways must expand freight handling capacity in tandem with the expansion of freight network capacity.”

Transloc will develop common user facilities with handling and value-added services to provide end-to-end logis- tics solution at select Railway terminals through PPPs.

In the budget it was proposed to upgrade ten existing goods sheds of Indian Railways and develop 30 small multimodal logistic parks, ini- tially under the aegis of Transloc, where Indian Railways has surplus land.

Mr Mathur also said that the tariff regulator for the railways will be appointed by 2016. “The appointment of railways regulator will take about a year as things are advancing towards this direction,” he said.

“The tariff regulator would suggest to the government the tariff and freight structure for the railways in addition to recommending the reforms on pricing factor of the largest entity of the government,” he said.

Mr Mathur said the latest gross revenues of the railways have reached to `1,40,000 crore against its working expenses of `1,30,000 crore. — PTI