Despite spending crores to set up a rail link with Vallarpadam and recommission the rail line to Mattancherry wharf, the railways have failed to bag reasonable freight orders for which it blamed the Port Trust and the state authorities for the “lack of interest”.
“We’re disappointed with the poor response (despite offering around 40 per cent less on rates compared to road transport)... business has been very poor. We’d anticipated six to seven rakes per day, but now we hope to get at least a single rake of goods,” said Thiruvananthapuram divisional railway manager Rajesh Agarwal.
The rail authorities had taken up the matter with the Vallarpadam authorities, Kerala State Planning Board and the Port Trust. “Especially the latter should give more consideration to our request as we already invested heavily. At least they should give us a share of the container transport to the dry port,” the official said.
The Rs362-crore rail connectivity project with the Vallarpadam International Container Transshipment Terminal was completed in record time. Rail connectivity from Edapally to Vallarpadam - around eight kilometres- was set up solely for container transport.
The terminal still handles enough containers which are now mainly transported by road choking the small roads of the state, the official said, pitching for more of a share of the container transport to the railways.