As part of an eco-friendly initiative, Indian Railways has introduced the Roll On-Roll Off (RO–RO) service to check pollution, reduce fuel consumption and road congestion on Central Railway and Western Railway zones. The service has recently been commenced on a commercial basis. According to a Mumbai Mirror report, the first rake started its journey on September 20 from Surathkal goods shed in Karnataka, which falls under Konkan Railway and reached the Karambeli goods shed in Gujarat of Western Railway on September 21. The RO-RO rake, which will be unloaded and be reloaded with trucks from the Karambeli goods shed, consists of 25 trucks loaded with an approximate haulage charge of Rs 1.81 lakh. In total, it will cover a distance of 290 km.
The service is expected to help decongest traffic and also reduce pollution in Mumbai Metropolitan Region’s (MMR) Thane and Bhiwandi as it allows trucks to be loaded onto railway wagons from the outskirts of large cities and be unloaded at ports and industrial hubs.
According to Chief Public Relations Officer of Konkan Railway LK Verma, who was quoted in the report, the first RO-RO service in the country was run by Konkan Railway in 1999. A senior railway officer claimed that a Ro-Ro service rake can carry 50 trucks and it can help to save around 10 litres of diesel per kilometre.
The Western Railway will generate more capacity to move these services, once the traffic is diverted to the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor. In Indian Railways, it will be the first of its kind, the ultimate intermodal transport on the existing track, the report stated. The running of RO-RO services was earlier cleared up to Boisar. Later, a trial run was conducted from Kolad to Karambeli. The Konkan Railway is utilizing modified wagons with standard carrying capacity, in which one truck will be accommodated in each wagon, as the conventional type of flat wagons cannot be utilized for operating these services.