Mumbai: The Western Railway (WR) conducted its first freight customer web conference through video link on June 6.
The web conference was presided by WR General Manager Alok Kansal, Principal Chief Commercial Manager R K Lal, Principal Chief Operations Manager Shailendra Kumar, Principal Financial Advisor Uma Ranade and other principal heads of departments of the WR.
According to Chief Public Relations Officer Ravinder Bhakar, WR, all the divisional railway managers, along with senior divisional commercial managers and senior divisional operations managers and freight customers also participated in the conference.
“The freight customers wholeheartedly accepted the proposal of web participation and more than 40 representatives of various parties dealing with Railways participated in the webinar, including major customers like Adani Port, Reliance Industries, IFFCO, DPT – Kandla Port, GNFC, ONGC, BPCL, IOC, Ultratech Cement, Wonder Cement, Birla Cement, CTA Logistics, KRCL, PRCL, BDRCL etc,” he said.
The welcome address of the webinar was delivered by Chief Commercial Manager (Freight Marketing), WR Uday Bobhate. Freight customers appreciated the WR endeavour to run freight trains during the Covid-19 pandemic. Participants included customers from Gujarat, parts of Maharashtra including Mumbai, parts of Madhya Pradesh and parts of Rajasthan.
A brief presentation was given by Principal Chief Commercial Manager R K Lal, WR, about the loading and earning scenario of Western Railway. He apprised the forum about the slow but steady growth reflected in May 2020 as compared to the previous month. Participating customers appreciated the various relaxations given by Railways, like the non-levy of ancillary charges, providing twice the free time for loading, free movement of empty containers and flats. They requested an extension of the relaxation as the conditions have not yet normalised.
“The parties then apprised their traffic projections for the year 2020-21 and also requested assistance in resolving their issues related to transportation, like rating competitive with road rates, timely availability of rakes, provision of two-point rakes etc. All customer queries were promptly addressed with warmth during the conference under a very healthy atmosphere,” he said.
WR GM Kansal, in his concluding speech, assured all the freight parties of fullest support of WR team and requested the parties to approach higher authorities in case of any issue hindering them at any level for freight issues.
“Any suggestions, which are directly related to enhancement of freight earnings, are always welcomed and assured the parties of addressing them immediately, at an appropriate level for decision. He also requested the freight parties to offer the traffic to the Railways as the unit cost of transportation by Railways is much lower as compared to road transportation, and therefore, the rail traffic commands a larger share as compared to the Road traffic. Moreover, WR has surpassed the previous year’s achievement of 77 million tonnes of traffic and Rs10,000 crore of freight earnings,” he said.
