Rly officials meet PHD chamber of commerce members

Tribune News Service

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Dehradun, June 3

Members of the PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry Uttarakhand had talks with the Union Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu during his visit to Haridwar last month. In response to this, a panel of railway authorities led by AS Upadhyay, Adviser Traffic Transport (M), Member Railway Board, met members of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry here today.

Anil Taneja, Resident Director, PHDCCI, stated that the Railways can play an important role in strengthening the infrastructure and connectivity of the state. SP Kochhar, chairman, PHDCCI Uttarakhand, stated that the Railways can be instrumental in filling the existing gaps in infrastructure and connectivity and can thus serve as a vehicle for inclusive growth and socio-economic development.

On the issue of development of the logistics hub for industry at Haridwar, AS Upadhyay stated that the state government needs to earmark land. He suggested that SIIDCUL should develop freight terminal on the land earmarked for it and the Railways will immediately facilitate the needed siding. BHEL has a 4-km-line connecting Haridwar railway station which can be a connecting link with SIIDCUL. If the state government and BHEL get into an understanding, the industry of SIIDCUL can benefit.

Manoj Sharma, Senior DRM, Moradabad division, shared that the Railways already have Roorkee, Luksar and Jwalapur as full-rake single line facilities (42 BSN wagons) for container loading and unloading and Pathari is the newly developed siding for the same. Rishikesh and Harrawal are the part rake sidings with provision for full rake capacity. The industry, as per railway officials, is not using the facilities to capacity as of now. The logistics companies operating in the region are not so professional as to help the industry avail the full potential of the facilities.

AS Upadhyay invited the industry to avail the facility of developing the Private Freight Terminals (PFTs). He stated that the new policy on PFTs has been liberalised to accommodate development of PFT by a group of private players forming a terminal management company which is privately owned. The application fee has been reduced from Rs 1 crore to Rs 10 lakh. The new policy has given due consideration to reducing the operational cost of the PFTs. For example, there is reduction in the amount required to be provided for as an advance deposit towards the railway employees’ salaries and other charges, which was a whopping amount, equivalent to 10 years of staff cost.