Indian Railways develops new portal exclusively for freight clients

The Railways, keen on increasing its freight basket and revenue, has developed an exclusive portal for its freight clients linking them to not just railway officials but providing them with a medium to lodge complaints and raise concerns.

As per the directions of the Railway Board, the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) team has developed a Freight Business Development (FBD) Portal.

"The FBD has been specially designed and developed with a 'Customer First' philosophy and helps in familiarising new freight customers with Indian Railways Freight Business. The portal presents a bouquet of information on IR Freight Business organised in simple and easy access links," the ministry said.

"The site also provides enhanced features for existing customers including GIS based track and trace and provision to contact Railways with their concerns. The new FBD portal provides a channel to the potential freight customers to reach railway officials and seek their assistance in transporting their goods by railways," the ministry said.

It shall also help Divisional and Zonal Business Development units to reach potential customers with the help of real-time monitoring of queries raised by such customers through the New Freight Business Development Portal.

The portal has been designed and developed with varied features including information Rich Freight Calculator, GIS-based tracking of consignments, terminal dashboard, Details on Freight incentive schemes, Own-a-terminal and Own-a-Wagon scheme and process details, and rich FAQs updated regularly, to name a few.

The FBD portal can be reached through “Freight Business” option available under the new 'Freight Services' feature added in the top menu bar of http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/.

The “RailMadad” Grievance redressal portal of Indian Railways has also been integrated with the new FBD portal for directing queries of the prospective and existing customers to Freight Business Units of the Divisions.