HOSUR

प्रेस विज्ञप्ति/ Press Release No. 160  Dt: 10.07.2020

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT UNIT (BDU) FOR FREIGHT IN SOUTH WESTERN RAILWAY

Indian Railways is working o­n ambitious target of doubling the freight volume by 2024.  Keeping this in view, Hon’ble Minister of Railways, Shri Piyush Goyal, directed Zonal Railways to setup multidisciplinary Business Development Units (BDU) at Zonal and Division level consisting of functionaries from all concerned departments.

Railway Board has set freight loading target of 39 Million Tonnes to South Western Railway for the financial year 2020-21.  SWR’s first virtual meeting with major freight loading customers has been held o­n 10th July 2020. Coal, Iron Ore, Steel, and Cement are the major commodities transported through Rail.

In South Western Railway, under the guidance of Shri A. K. Singh, General Manager, Business Development Unit has been set up.  To improve loading and to prepare action plan for improving loading and also to improve the condition of Goods Sheds, Shri P. K. Mishra, Additional General Manager has been nominated as nodal officer of SWR.

At the Zonal level, Business Development Unit (BDU) has been set up o­n SWR comprising of Principal Chief Commercial Manager, Shri Anil Pavithran, Chief Freight Transportation Manager, Shri S.P. Shastri, FA&CAO/G, Shri U. Govindu and Chief Rolling Stock Engineer/Freight, Shri Prakash Chaudhary.  This BDU will have frequent interaction with trade and industry to resolve any issues pertaining to freight loading through rail.

While addressing its customers Shri Pavithran, PCCM has stated that an action plan has been chalked out to achieve the loading target by attracting its customers through various concession and freight incentive schemes.

Shri S.P. Shastri, CFTM and convener for the BDU further explained to the customers about various freight incentive schemes and concessions available for various streams of traffic and requested customers to avail the benefits of these schemes.

Short lead concession is given to all commodities except coal, coke, and iron ore.  Military Traffic, Rail Material Consignment and Container Traffic.  50% concession upto distance of 0-50 KM, 25% for 51-75 KMs and 10% for 75-90 KMs.

Long lead concession is offered for coal, coke, Iron Ore and Iron and Steel.  20% concession is given for coal and coke traffic which is moved beyond 1400 KMs.  20% is given for Iron & Steel which is moved beyond 1600 KMs.  15% for Iron ore moved between 701-1500 KMs and 20% for traffic beyond 1500 KMs.

Mini rakes are permitted o­nly for covered wagons with a minimum composition of 21 wagons can be loaded from all half and full rake terminals to a maximum distance of 1500 KMs for all commodities except coal, ores, and raw material for steel plants.

Two point rakes (covered wagons o­nly) are permitted to notified terminals by Railway Board o­n certain conditions such as the distance between two terminals should not be more than 500KMs a minimum of 10 wagons should be loaded to each destination, etc.

Loading of Steel for 2 destinations is permitted o­n South Western Railway for combination of destinations viz. Satellite Goods Terminal Whitefield (SGWF)- Maddur, Hosur-Maddur, SGWF-Hosur and Sail Siding Channasandra (CSAS)-SGWF. 

The members of BDU further assured all possible assistance to the customers and emphasized o­n moving more traffic by the Railways as it is the best and safe choice for freight transportation during this current crisis faced due to Covid-19 pandemic.  CFTM assured for the timely supply of various types of empty rakes to suit the various loading requirements of customers.

On SWR new steam of Traffic has already been captured in form of Granulated slag from JSW Steel Ltd to PMAK. This was recaptured after gap of 5 years from 2017, duly availing short lead concession.

Representatives from JSW Steel Ltd of Toranagallu and Macheri Road, South West Port Ltd., Adani, National Mineral Development Corporation, ACC Cements, Kirloskar, Vedanta, BMM Ispat, RPC, Sri Kalahasthi Pipes, Arjas Steel, among others have participated in the meeting.

                                                                                           Chief Public Relations Officer

                                                                              South Western Railway, Hubballi

प्रेस विज्ञप्ति/ Press Release No. 152  Dt: 28.06.2020

SWR CARRIES 3.76 LAKH PASSENGERS IN 256 SHRAMIK SPECIAL TRAINS

Starting with the first Shramik Special Train which chugged out from the SWR o­n 4^th May 2020, South Western Railway has run 256 trains transporting 3.76 Lakh migrant workers to their native places/destinations up to 27^th June 2020.  While, SWR carried the first o­ne Lakh passengers in 13 days, the 2 Lakh passengers were moved in just 6 days. 2.5 Lakh passengers were carried in just 7 days, 3.0 Lakh passengers in another 7 days and 3.5 Lakh passengers in 16 days.

248 trains carrying 3.63 Lakh passengers left from Karnataka and 8 trains carrying 12,718 passengers left from Hosur in Tamilnadu, to the different parts of the country.

  As and when State Govt. advised, SWR has arranged for Shramik Special trains to all parts of country for the migrant workers to reach their hometowns. The route and stoppages also were advised by State Govt.

SWR has run Shramik Specials from KSR Bengaluru, Bengaluru Cant., Chikkabanavara, Malur, Ashokapuram, Kabakaputtur, Hassan, Hubballi, Hosapete, Ballari, Koppal  and Hosur in Tamil Nadu state wise from 03.05.2020 to 27.06.2020 is as below;

Bengaluru Division has run lion's share of Shramik specials - 223 so far ferrying 3.28 Lakhs passengers.  Hubballi Division has run 21 Shramik Special carrying 30,580 passengers and Mysuru Division has run 12 Shramik Specials ferrying 16,974 passengers.

SWR is transporting passengers to their destination as per the demand of State Government with proper protocol under advise to   State Government to be  ready to accept them after screening etc,.  Initially these special trains were being run from point to point with no stoppages en-route. Later so as to accommodate many passengers with different destinations with same / enroute State, stoppages were given as advised by State Government. Karnataka State Govt. is arranging to bring passengers of Shramik Special trains to the stations through BMTC Buses as per the protocol, after due process of registration.

Care is being taken to ensure social distancing, wearing of masks and sanitizing of hands and making regular announcement to caution the passengers for prevention and spread of Covid-19 virus before departure from stations. Hand Sanitizer along with liquid soap has been provided in all coaches to protect against spread of Covid-19 Virus.  Railway is also ensuring complete sanitization of all coaches before boarding of special train by the passengers.

Special Trains are departing the Stations o­nly after all the passengers are medically examined by Government of Karnataka and issued medical certificate.  Thermal screening is again done by Railway Medical Teams at the stations.  None of the passengers were detected with high temperature.   The Railway Protection Force (RPF) team is escorting the trains and ensuring social distancing. Details of passengers, coach-wise with address and mobile Nos. have been obtained.  Details have been digitalized and stored for contact tracing in future, if required.

In association with NGOs, Railways is supplying  three meals  right at the  boarding point.

1) Each food packet contains Ricebath, 4 chapati with pickle, 2 oranges, 2 o­ne litre water bottles, 2 roti with sabji, 1 pack Ricebath, 1 kara bun, 1 sweet bun, sponsored Labour department associated with WIPRO Azim premji and Mercy mission.

2) Second pack, 200ml water bottles 4no, 2 Maza tetra packets, 2 buns, 4 pineapple, 4 laddu, 1 mixer packet sponsored by NGO

The operations of "Khushi " and " Put the Smile back"  launched by Bengaluru Division where toys are distributed to the children of the migrant workers have been widely appreciated by all quarters.

Shri A.K. Singh, General Manager said that Railway has  been actively engaged in Shramik special - with Mission of reuniting stranded people with their families , was a mammoth o­ne and given the level of complexity in view of prevailing pandemic conditions , it was extremely challenging. He appreciated Divisional teams for managing all train operations smoothly. Shri Singh told that in case of any further requirement of Shramik specials is received from State Govt., same will be arranged  within 12 -16 hours.

                                                                                           Chief Public Relations Officer

                                                                              South Western Railway, Hubballi