Mangalore: N N Talan, deputy chief commercial manager said that the RORO (Roll on- Roll off) scheme of Konkan Railway, which was started on January 26, 1999, has enabled carrying loaded trucks directly on the railway wagons.

He was speaking at the press meet held at Railway Quarters on July 24, Tuesday. He said that the truck is accompanied by the driver and co0driver and is required to pass a height gauge to adjudge the height dimension of the truck to be carried on the RORO train. Thus reducing the expenditure on diesel, wear and tear of tyres, maintenance of trucks for the operators and intact delivery, free of any road risk factor and without multiple handling of consignments. At the national level this services helps to conserve precious fuel, decongest national highways and reduce the pollution levels along the route.

He also said that, in the present scenario of transportation sector the transporters do not want to change from existing mode of transport to railways primarily on account of following main three factors. Intermediate handling of consignment, cost factor since the railways has a high rated goods traffic and normally carries only bulk consignments of about 2400-3600 MT and operation on credit as transport industry operates on credit basis rather than pre-paid traffic.

Speaking on the RORO, he said that it is the solution. Transport Industry may have a general view that railways being fuel-efficient system should be able to provide a better solution to them in such a severely competitive market. An experiment started by Konkan Railway in sorting out this issue has emerged into a successful mode of transport popularly known as RORO which answers the all three problems stated above and faced by the transport industry.

He said that the success of RORO experiment rest on the novel facilities as been discussed. The Terminal Management for the RORO working, no goods-shed or depot is required, only a ramp at the end of the loop line with approach road is enough. Unloading and loading of rake is completed in 2 hrs. RORO train is achieving an average speed of 40 kmph thereby increasing the owner’s fleet turnaround. Claim liability for the railway is also reduced.

RORO service is seen to be most viable for the short lead traffic. A dumper loaded in the port can roll on to the RORO rake and roll off at the destination industry, dump the material and go back to the port again using the RORO rake, he said.

Baban Gate and Sunil Narkar were present at the press meet.