B S Yediyurappa, Chief Minister of Karnataka and Shri Suresh C. Angadi, Minister of State of Railways today flagged off first ever Roll On Roll Off (RORO) service of South Western Railway from Nelamangla (near Bengaluru) to Bale (near Solapur).
Speaking on the occasion, Shri B S Yediyurappa, Chief Minister of Karnataka said, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is emphasizing on Multimodal connectivity. APMC Markets in the region offer tremendous scope for RORO. He congratulated Suresh C. Angadi, Minister of State of Railways for taking lead in the initiative and assured full cooperation from State Government.
Speaking on the occasion, Suresh C. Angadi, Minister of State of Railways said, Multimodal connectivity is dream of Prime Minister. Thousands of trucks plying between Bengaluru and Solapur. With RORO travel time will be just 17 hours. This is trial run that got delayed due to COVID. Kisan Rail started to help farmers-agricultural produce can be transported across the country. The RORO service will bring faster development in the region.
RORO is a concept of carrying road vehicles loaded with various commodities, on open flat railway wagons. PM ,in his recent Independence day speech ,has envisaged multimodal connectivity to take India to next level of development. RORO services are combination of best features of road and rail transports in the sense that they offer door to door service with minimal handling transported by fat and direct rail link . Road transport has advantage of door to door delivery of goods. However, increasing traffic on roads is leading to congestion and delays to passenger vehicles. This will cause unsafe travel conditions. Also, delays at interstate check posts due to inspection of various documents, etc. contribute to increased travel time.
On the other hand, Railways provide hassle free and environmentally friendly transport to medium to large quantum of freight. Rail transport is most fuel efficient of all means of transport and is much safer than road. RORO is a multimodal delivery model with many advantages. Faster movement of goods and essentials, reducing Time taken by trucks to reach destinations due to traffic congestion in between cities. Reduces congestion on the roads. Saves precious fuel. Reduces carbon footprint. Relief to crew of truck as it avoids long distance driving. No hassles of check posts/toll gates etc. Seamless Inter-operability between roadways & railways-Inter-modal transport on existing track. Ensuring uninterrupted supply of essential commodities.
Free time for loading/ unloading is 3 hours Ro-RO will be reckoning force in “vocal for local” –Will boost our local MSME units by encouraging piecemeal /decentralized loading through trucks. RO-RO will help government initiatives like “operation green” to stabalize prices of TOP(tomato,potato and Onion). Provides link between agriculture producing regions and agro consumption centres. Ensures farmers get the right market and right price for their produce. Connects and Balances the commodity deficient and surplus markets. RO-ROtrain services were first introduced in Indian Railways on Konkan Railways in 1999, and are running successfully since then.
