In a major change of policy, Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has now permitted use of alternative goods sheds in the vicinity of busy goods sheds to decongest them.
“As per analysis done of the traffic handled at different goods sheds it has been revealed that while some of the goods sheds are very busy, leading to frequent restrictions on loading to those goods shed, other goods sheds in the vicinity of these goods sheds are found to be underutilized,” stated NFR CPRO Subhanan Chanda.
Keeping in view that these underutilized good sheds are utilized in a better way and loading to and from that area is improved, it has now been decided that the customers (transporters), who will use these alternative goods sheds instead of the busy ones, will be incentivized, Chanda said.
“Normally a transporter has to pay at Rs. 20 per ton as terminal charge for the booked traffic. This comes to around Rs. 50,000 per rake (approx). But if the trader decides to use the alternative good shed which is nearby, he will not have to pay any such charges thereby making a saving of about Rs. 50,000 per rake (approx),” the NFR CPRO stated.
Such use of the alternative good sheds will not only reduce the congestion but will also reduce the turnaround time of a freight rake, he said.
The traders can expect that their booked rake would reach the destination faster for clearance. Moreover, the waiting period for loading and unloading will come down significantly, the NFR official said.
In the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) area, 5 busy goods sheds have been selected and alternative goods shed has been notified against each of them.
They are Baihata goods shed as alternative to Azara goods shed, Pathsala Public siding as alternative to Barpeta Road goods shed, Surjakamal goods shed as alternative to Kishanganj goods shed, Baghdogra goods shed as the alternative of New Jalpaiguri goods shed and Bihara goods shed as alternative to Salchapra goods shed.
“This new measure is expected to help in transporting more commodities to and from Northeast region within a much lesser time-frame,” Chanda added.