Excavators trundle down a railway line

Shifting excavators by rail is a uncommon choice. Nonetheless, logistics firm CJ Darcl just lately did simply that, transporting these heavy building gear from Chennai to Ballabgarh in Haryana on specialised rakes to underscore a dedication in the direction of sustainability and effectivity.

As many as 34 excavators, together with fashions from Volvo CE, Komatsu India, and Caterpillar’s India seller Gainwell Commosales. “This initiative intently aligns with the corporate’s mission to combine eco-friendly practices into its logistics operations,” says Nikhil Agarwal, President, CJ Darcl Logistics.

The multimodal logistics options supplier has street, rail, air, and transport transportation verticals. Its fleet contains vehicles, trailers, pullers, tippers, loaders, dumpers and hydraulic axles, aside from almost 1,100 transport containers.

Agarwal says the corporate has, since 2007, been dealing with cross-country railway motion of assorted commodities and heavy cargo for iron, metal, glass and different industries. The current motion of building gear from Chennai is a primary for the corporate, he says, including that it plans to do it extra commonly in future.

To keep away from empty returns and use sources optimally, it plans to ferry again comparable cargo to Chennai.

Selecting rail over street for cargo motion comes with a number of compelling advantages. Rail transport is usually shorter than street journey, particularly over lengthy distances, marked by minimal congestions and delays, resulting in well timed supply. It is usually extra economical for larger consignments as trains can accommodate extra in a single go, thereby decreasing the associated fee per unit. Furthermore, rail transportation fees are largely fastened and this helps avert the associated fee fluctuations skilled in street transport attributable to variable gasoline costs and tolls. 

Environmentally, too, railway is a extra sustainable mode of transport, entailing much less greenhouse gasoline emissions per tonne-km vis-a-vis vehicles. In sum, railway transport gives purchasers the triple benefits of cost-efficiency, reliability and sustainability, Agarwal says.

India has the world’s second largest street community at 55 lakh km, as towards 1.32 lakh km of railways strains. Highway accounts for 58 per cent of freight motion within the nation, whereas 35 per cent is by rail, 6 per cent by waterways, and fewer than one per cent by air, in line with a report by RSM Astute Consulting. 

Value of freight motion by street is ₹2.58 per tonne per km, whereas it’s ₹1.41 per tonne per km by rail and ₹1.06 per tonne per km by waterways.