In a bid to woo more corporate customers, Indian Railways has promised green bragging rights to those who decide to ferry goods using trains.
To be sure, these points are different from carbon credits that can be traded or sold to make money.
This move comes at a time when Railways intends to attain the net-zero goal by 2030 and become the world’s first rail-system to go fully green.
Indian Railways’ core IT arm – Centre for Railway Information Systems – will maintain a Green Point generating account for every freight customer, starting April 1, 2022, registered with the railways.
For every tonne of cargo moved for one kilometre, the carbon dioxide equivalent emitted for rail is 0.009 kg, while the same for road is 0.040 kg, it calculates.
All rail customers who register on the Railways portal will get ‘green points’.
In case the sender and receiver of goods are the same company, all the RGPs will be credited to the same company.
Cement movement accounted for almost 9 percent and finished steel made up 6 percent of railway’s freight business on a net tonne kilometre basis for 11 months of the present fiscal.
Customers are willing to pay a small premium for going green, Mahindra Logistics’ Managing Director and CEO Rampraveen Swaminathan said.
With dedicated rail freight corridors opening up the capacity for railways to attract more cargo, corporates can use this tool to calculate emissions saved.