Southern Railway sets up business development unit to shore up freight volume, revenue

The BDUs will basically facilitate industry and trade representatives as well as freight customers to get in touch with Railways at appropriate zonal as well as divisional levels .

Southern Railway has announced the setting up of a business development unit (BDU) at zonal level, comprising senior officials from freight transportation, freight marketing, accounts office and engineering departments. Continuing with the sustained focus being given on increasing the freight business carried out by the Railways and as per the directions of the Railway Board, business development units (BDUs) are being set up at both zonal and divisional levels of Southern Railway. The primary focus of these units will be bringing Railways closer to industry and trade as well as increasing the Railway’s share in the transportation needs of various sectors including non- bulk goods traffic, a press release said on Sunday.

The BDUs will basically facilitate industry and trade representatives as well as freight customers to get in touch with Railways at appropriate zonal as well as divisional levels and to have expeditious clearance of their proposals for freight movement, which will benefit both the industry as well as Railways.

Southern Railway serves six ports and several cement plants apart from major thermal power stations, steel plants and other major industries. The Railway has introduced a slew of policy initiatives in order to attract rail freight traffic, and is committed to working with the industry in formulating policies that can be more tailored to suit specific industry needs. The BDU of both the zone as well as the divisions will be in touch with all stakeholders over the next few weeks, the release further added.

The Southern Railway BDU committee will initiate steps to attract new streams of traffic duly interacting with trade and industry at frequent intervals, to understand the existing pattern of goods transportation and explore the possibility of attracting additional freight traffic to railways. The BDU will also serve as a nodal point for speedy operationalisation of new traffic proposals after due analysis.

Assistance from other zonal railways or guidance from Railway Board will be taken if necessary. Similar business development units are also being formed in all the six divisions of Southern Railway, namely, Chennai, Salem, Tiruchchirappalli, Madurai, Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram, with the senior divisional operating managers being the coordinators and the senior divisional commercial manager, senior divisional finance manager and the senior divisional mechanical engineers being the members of the divisional BDUs, the release said.