South Western Railway (SWR) and JSW Minerals Rail Logistics Pvt Ltd have entered into an agreement under the General Purpose Wagon Investment Scheme (GPWIS), for the operation of seven specialised hopper wagons to load and unload iron ore on Tuesday.
SWR has said that this scheme of Indian Railways enables the freight customer to invest in leasing of wagons, and offers a rebate on freight thereby incentivising transportation of bulk cargo by rail. In the long term, by enabling a modal shift from road to rail, policies such as GPWIS have the potential to strengthen the supply chain for the ‘core sector’ industries in the country and effect the reduction of logistics costs.
This is the first kind of agreement in SWR. The rake is manufactured by Titagarh Rail System Limited; Kolkata and the first rake is expected to be operative from April 2024. The JSW Minerals Rail Logistics Private Limited is investing Rs 29.5 crore per rake. A rebate of 10% is granted to the customer on base freight for every booking. The agreement is signed by A Sundar, chief commercial manager/freight marketing, SWR and Sushil Nowal, executive vice-president (planning and logistics), JSW, in the presence of SWR principal officials like Satya Prakash Shastri, Aravinda Herle G, and JSW logistics general manager Manmohan Shetty.