TCI is going full throttle to expand its multimodal operations. “We are buying new ships. We have six ships, and we will be buying more ships – either second-hand or new ones. That will augment our capacity for shipping. We will also be buying one more rake this year for automotive transportation. Also, we are continuously hiring rakes from the railways to move our cargo,” informs Vinit Agarwal.
“While earlier, 100% of TCI’s movement used to be via roads, now almost two-thirds are by road, the rest being via multimodal logistics. But it should be noted here that multimodal will also require road movements in the first and the last mile. Dedicated freight corridors (DFCs) have also started functioning. This is an indicator that at some point in time, the shift to multimodal has to happen. The shift will happen gradually rather than abruptly because the roads have a very large share in India’s logistics, more than double that of rail,” shares Vinit Agarwal.
Multimodal has many dimensions to it. One is clearly from the perspective of reducing logistics costs in the country. And the second is moving towards green logistics, reducing carbon emissions etc. This has been highlighted both in the National Logistics Policy and the Gati Shakti Programme. At the company level, TCI started investing in this a long time back. The logistics major has had its coastal shipping business for many years. Then, a few years ago, they started a joint venture with CONCOR. That was in rail container logistics. Apart from that, they have also invested in rakes for the automotive movement. TCI is now moving cars, two-wheelers, and tractors by rail, using own rakes, as well as rakes hired from the railways.
