NE BUSINESS BUREAU
CHENNAI, NOV 7
Southern Railway General Manager John Thomas on Friday deliberated on increasing freight business and ease of doing business with railways for the customers. A detailed review of the marketing efforts taken by the divisions in capturing new traffic by Rail was made and discussions were held on various new proposals under consideration for increasing the freight and parcel business of the Southern Railway, a release said.
According to the release, John Thomas conducted a virtual review meeting with the Business Development Units (BDUs) of Headquarters and the six divisions and impressed upon them to focus on increasing freight business and take measures to smoothen the process of doing business with Railways for its freight and parcel customers. The virtual meeting was attended by Additional General Manager, Principal Chief Operations Manager, Principal Chief Commercial Manager, Divisional Railway Managers of six divisions, and all the members of the BDU units at Zonal and Divisional levels.
“With the pro-active marketing initiatives of BDUs, Southern Railway has captured various new streams of traffic during the last three months. This includes limestone, Clinker, Gypsum, MOP, Harvester machines, Mosquito nets, automobiles, etc. A time-tabled Parcel Cargo Express train (PCET) service has commenced between Coimbatore and Patel Nagar near Delhi to facilitate the timely delivery of parcels to customers. In the review meeting, various proposals for running some more new Parcel cargo express trains were discussed,” Thomas said.
After a detailed review, the General Manager advised all the members of the BDUs to work in close association with rail freight and parcel customers toward increasing Railway’s Freight and parcel business and adopt measures that will help in bringing about ease of doing business with Railways for its customers.
As a part of the pan-India marketing strategy, Southern Railway had formed Business Development Units (BDUs), in July, at Zonal level and divisional level comprising officers from Operating, Commercial, Accounts, and Mechanical wings. The primary focus of these units is to bring Railways closer to Industry and Trade and as well as increase the Railway’s share in the transportation of goods in various sectors including non-bulk goods traffic. Besides, the BDUs will share with its Freight customers and the representatives of Industry and trade various freight incentives and schemes introduced by the Railway Board and facilitate in expediting their proposals come to fruition.
