Indian Railways (IR) has announced its plan to increase its Gati Shakti cargo terminals (GCTs) from 124 to 500 by 2031 as part of its second reform approved under “52 reforms in 52 weeks”. The reform is expected to generate an additional revenue of about Rs 300 billion over a period of three years.
Moreover, IR will facilitate integration of processing within the cargo terminals, transforming them into cargo plus processing hubs, for example, food grain processing, stuffing, destuffing, and other value addition activities can occur within the terminal premises. This will eliminate the need to process material at a different place before bringing it to the terminal along with removing artificial barriers, while attracting additional cargo traffic for the railways sector.
Further, underutilised goods sheds will be developed as GCTs and cargo facilities. Also, standard layouts have been incorporated into the policy, and applicants adopting standard designs will receive automatic approvals, similar to the telecom reform model where standardisation reduced approval timelines drastically. Furthermore, contract tenure for GCTs and cargo-related facilities has been extended from 35 years to 50 years, enabling long-term investments.