Indian Railways offers service guarantee for large industrial shippers

Indian Railways offers service guarantee for large industrial shippers The Indian Railways has begun to develop time definite freight service contracts with some of India’s major industrial shippers, the Economic Times reported Wednesday.
   Facing competition from private freight rail operators licensed by the Indian government, the country’s state-run railroad is trying to become more responsive to shippers’ needs, an executive told the newspaper.
   Last year, the government licensed 15 private operators, of which three have already begun services. The latest one, APL, introduced a time-definite container service between Delhi and Mumbai.
   The service guarantees offered by the Indian Railways are said to govern bulk shipments (of products like coal). The deals would likely be consummated with major industrial players like Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, Lafarge and Gujarat Ambuja.
   Under the planned long-term contracts, the railway would offer rebates for failure to meet scheduled delivery in exchange for a guarantee by the shipper of a specific volume of cargo. Failure by the shipper to meet that volume target would invoke a penalty paid back to the railway.