The Hindu : New Delhi News : Lalu Prasad’s call to divert more traffic of essential goods from road to rail

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 31, 2007
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New Delhi

Lalu Prasad’s call to divert more traffic of essential goods from road to rail

Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI: Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Monday asked the zonal railways to make ‘urgent efforts’ to attract more essential goods which were being moved by road.

He also stressed on the need to formulate policies for carrying the raw material and finished goods so that more traffic could be diverted from road to rail.

Addressing a meeting of General Mangers of all zonal railways and production units, Mr. Prasad said that General Managers had been empowered to take all possible steps to popularise attractive schemes and incentives to get more and more traffic from road to rail. He urged them to continue with vigorous efforts to meet the loading target of the current year especially in the field of cement and steel.

Mr. Prasad said he had given directions to the Railway Board to take urgent policy decision regarding commercial, operating and pricing matters so as to attract more and more traffic towards railways. The Minister further said that liberalisation of container policy has created interest among private investors. He asked the General Managers to help in creating rail connectivity to sidings so that the scheme could be implemented effectively. The officials needed to devote more attention to several schemes which have been launched to enhance rail capacity such as rationalisation of loco link, improvement in terminal facilities, computerisation of guard’s and driver’s lobby, and electrification of sidings.

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