Yediyurappa and Angadi flags off first ever RORO service of South Western Railway from Nelamangla (near Bengaluru) to Bale (near Solapur)

S. Yediyurappa, Chief Minister of Karnataka and Suresh C. Angadi, Minister of State of Railways flagged off first ever 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, “Our beloved Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji  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.

He congratulated customer of today’s RORO service for taking initiative. He also congratulated all Railway staff for doing mammoth work.

Roll On Roll Off (RORO)is a concept of carrying road vehicles loaded with various commodities, on open flat railway wagons .Hon’ble 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.

Advantages of RO-RO :

Roll-on-Roll-off is a multimodal delivery model with following advantages

Ø  Faster movement of goods and essentials, reducing Time taken by trucks to reach destinations due to traffic congestion in between cities

Ø  Reduces congestion on the roads

Ø  Saves precious fuel

Ø  Reduces carbon footprint

Ø  Relief to crew of truck as it avoids long distance driving

Ø  No hassles of check posts/toll gates etc

Ø  Seamless Inter-operability between roadways & railways-Inter-modal transport on existing track

Ø  Ensuring uninterrupted supply of essential commodities

Ø  Free time for loading/ unloading is 3 hours

Ø  Ro-RO will be reckoning force in “vocal for local” –

Ø  Will boost our local MSME units by encouraging piecemeal /decentralized loading through trucks.

Ø  RO-RO will help government initiatives like “operation green” to stabalize prices of  TOP(tomato, potato and Onion)

Ø  Provides link between agriculture producing regions and agro consumption centres

Ø  Ensures farmers get the right market and right price for their produce

Ø  Connects and Balances the commodity deficient and surplus markets

RO-RO train services were first introduced in Indian Railways on Konkan Railways in 1999, and are running successfully since then.

In lockdown announced to control the spread of Covid-19 in the country, the RO-RO model came to the rescue for many transporters.

A Solapur based firm, M/s Jitendra Realty and Infrastructure Pvt Ltd Company(JRIPL)explored the commercial feasibility of RO-RO train services between Solapur and Bengaluru.  Based on the feasibility report submitted by Central Railway, recommended by South Central and South Western Railway, Railway Board has approved the RO-RO service between the two commercial Hubs Nelamangla (near  Bengaluru) and  Bale (near Solapur)in April 2020.

Bengaluru and Solapur cities are thriving business cities, rich in agri-products.  Substantial road traffic carrying large number of commodities moves  between these two cities

After the detailed study, the route of RORO train services between these two cities ,is decided to be passing through four States – Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh , Telangana and Maharashtra