Texmaco, Titagarh Wagons and HEI group and other wagon makers are facing the brunt of a year old Railway Ministry policy that limited the growth of container train operators (CTOs). Ever since the Indian Railways announced the policy in December 2010 that prohibited certain categories of cargo for domestic container operations, no new orders for flat wagons have been placed by the CTOs.
In the one last year, the 16 CTOs including Concor, Gateway Rail have only received deliveries of those wagons, for which orders had been placed before December 2010.
A key indicator is the number of rakes inducted by Container Corporation of India (Concor)-the largest player in the CTO market.
Till the first nine months of current fiscal, Container Corporation of India had inducted only one rake, against 12 in 2010-11 and 16 in 2009-10.