Stone India forms subsidiary to manufacture freight cars
Stone India forms subsidiary to manufacture freight cars
Kolkata: An engineering company that manufactures components for the railways, the G.P. Goenka-controlled Stone India Ltd, on Wednesday announced it was entering the logistics business through a technical collaboration with US-based RailRunner NA Inc.
“This will revolutionize freight movement in India," said Goenka. “But I don’t expect miracles within a year." The launch of these freight cars would substantially reduce shipment time and costs, he added.
Under an exclusive 10-year pact with RailRunner, Stone India will use its patented technology to manufacture freight cars in India. Designs of the new freight cars have been submitted to the Union rail ministry for approval. Stone India expects to start manufacturing the new freight cars within a year.
“Whereas a train can carry up to 45 conventional container carriers at a time, RailRunner’s technology makes it possible for a train to carry up to 50 containers," said Amitava Mondal, Stone India’s managing director and chief executive officer. “Also, because the weight of these freight cars is only 11 tonnes as opposed to 18-20 tonnes of conventional container carriers, running these is going to be far more fuel-efficient."
Stone India and RailRunner started discussing a tie-up in January last year. Initially, the latter was keen on taking an equity interest in the venture, but Goenka said he persuaded RailRunner to agree in the end to a fee-based technical collaboration.
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