Hubballi (Karnataka), Jun 3 (PTI) Consumable products, the automobile industry and upcoming electronics manufacturing hubs around Bengaluru and Mysore have opened up new avenues to boost freight operations, Mukul Saran Mathur, General Manager of South Western Railway, said on Tuesday.

Speaking to PTI, Mathur highlighted that the South Western Railway has significant potential for both freight and passenger services.

He said that railway zones with resources such as mines, iron ore, oil, and coal have significant freight potential. However, the South Western Railway (SWR) zone benefits not only from an iron ore mine near Hubballi but also from the presence of leading auto companies, an emerging electronics hub, and a large consumables market. These factors present new freight opportunities.

Recently, SWR opened Shettihalli station in the Bengaluru division for loading Toyota cars that were transported to other parts of the country.

“We have opened a new goods shed for automobiles which has generated a lot of interest among auto manufacturers companies. It is a new area for the railways to tap so as to boost its freight operations. We are working towards developing a freight container hub here,” Mathur said.

“The second big emerging market is electronic products. Then comes the parcel and consumable delivery products which we want to tap too. The only challenge is connectivity and bringing these markets on the freight rail network. We are aggressively pursuing that,” he added.

Mathur said that the Railways did focus on improving infrastructure in the past, but, according to him, the amount of effort that should have gone into creating new lines and goods sheds was lacking.

“I think the market grew faster than the Railways in the past 20 years and that’s the reason there is a lack of infrastructure,” he said.

Besides container-based freight, parcel vans like the one that SWR runs on a weekly basis from Bengaluru in a time-bound manner for companies like Amazon and others have become its focus areas.

Experts say that one of the initiatives that Railways took to increase the parcel vans facilities was to reduce the Bogie Covered Wagon (BCW) some months ago because of its surplus availability and replace it with parcel vans which created new demands.

“We used the opportunity to transport the consignment of Maggie to various destinations loading from Bengaluru and Mysore which happened for the first time. This type of consumer durable market is quite big in Bengaluru and Mysore,” Mathur said.

He added that freight services in SWR are bound to grow as it has two ports to serve, the traditional iron ore mines business and several new upcoming opportunities in terms of container and parcel van services.

Talking about the expansion plan to cater to the upcoming freight opportunities, Mathur said that the SWR zone is opening many new goods sheds with modern facilities, improving the existing ones and constructing additional lines.

“We will see the outcome in a couple of years as a dividend of our current initiatives,” he added. PTI JP RT

Freight infrastructure potential driving rail expansion: goods sheds, container hub planning and parcel van services to boost freight capacity. South Western Railway is expanding freight services by targeting automobile and electronics manufacturing hubs and consumables markets through specialised goods sheds, container hub planning, conversion of surplus wagons to parcel vans, expanded parcel services, and infrastructure works including new goods sheds and additional lines to improve connectivity and capacity.