Contents INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Need for the study 4 1.3 Aims and Objectives 6 The study could be broadly described in the following three parts: 6 1.4 Scope and Limitations 6 1.5 Framework of Study 7 FREIGHT SCENARIO IN INDIA 2.1 Overview of the Indian freight Transport Industry 8 2.2 Structure of commodities 11 2.3 Share of transport modes 13 2.4 Opportunities for modal shift to Rail in Container transportation 14 ROADWAYS AND RAILWAYS IN INDIA 3.1 Road v/s Rail competition: modal shares of containers 17 3.2 Indian Railways: Structure and Performance 21 3.2.1 Institutional Framework 21 3.2.2 Infrastructure 24 3.2.3 Operations 29 3.2.4 Investments 30 3.2.5 Vision and Initiatives 32 3.2.6 Issues in Indian Railways 33 3.3 Roadways in India: Structure and Performance 35 3.3.1 Market Structure 35 3.3.2 Infrastructure 37 3.3.3 Investments 39 3.3.4 Initiatives 40 3.3.5 Issues with Road Transportation 41 CONTAINER MOVEMENT IN INDIA 4.1 Agencies involved in container movement 44 4.2 Structure of Container movement 46 4.2.1 Container operations by CONCOR 49 4.2.2 Privatization of Operations: Policy by IR 52 4.3 Assessment of Policy Initiatives 55 4.3.1 Response to Policy 55 4.3.2 Issues for Container Train Operators (CTO) 56 4.3.3 Traffic handled 58 4.4 Barriers to Modal Shift 59 ANALYSIS OF CONTAINER MOVEMENT 5.1 Identification of High Density Container Corridors in India 61 5.2. Traffic Analysis: Mumbai-Ahmedabad Corridor 64 5.3 Road v/s Rail: Costs Analysis 66 5.4 Capacity Constraints 70 5.5 Future Traffic Projections and Infrastructure Investment 71 5.6 Issues for Container Movement by Rail on Mumbai-Ahmedabad Corridor 76 STRATEGIES AND RECOMMENDATIONS 6.1 The Way Forward 78 6.2 Policies: Macro-level realization for long term Vision 80 6.3 Reinventing Railways 83 6.4 Creation of Viable Environment for Private Sector 87 6.5 Conclusion 88 BIBLIOGRAPHY 89