Launched with much fanfare, Konkan Railway’s Ro-Ro to Goa has just one booking in one week

Interest in India's first Ro-Ro train service from Maharashtra to Goa is low, with only one booking so far; trip may be canceled if demand doesn't rise.

MUMBAI: It has been a week since booking began for the country’s first Ro-Ro train service, which will ferry cars, between Maharashtra and Goa. However, there has been scarce interest evinced by citizens, as until Sunday, the Konkan Railway authorities received only 38 calls inquiring about this, of which only one person booked a seat for the journey that begins on August 23 from Kolad. The Konkan Railway (KR) authorities said that in the event of insufficient bookings (fewer than 16 cars), the trip would be cancelled and registration fees refunded.

Representative picture of Roll-on Roll-off (RO-RO) service (HT Archives) (Arvind Yadav/HT PHOTO)

The Ro-Ro, which can accommodate 40 cars per trip, has been planned as a non-stop run from Kolad in Maharashtra to Verna in Goa. Just before the Ganpati festival, the Konkan route becomes extremely busy for the railways, which operate regular and special trains with coaches exceeding their carrying capacity. Sources in the railways said that the majority of the queries they had received pertained to whether the Ro-Ro halted at important stations like Ratnagiri and Sawantwadi, which see a high footfall of people going to their hometowns to celebrate Ganeshotsav. However, since there are no facilities available for loading and unloading cars at these stations, there will be no halts, said railway officials.

The Ro-Ro facility is proposed to be operated on alternate days in each direction until September 11. The bookings for the service will close on August 13 for the route that commences from August 23 from Kolad and August 24 from Verna.

Akshay Mahapadi, secretary of the Akhand Konkan Railway Pravasi Seva Samiti, Maharashtra, pointed out that the 12-hour train journey offered no time saving over the 10 to 12 hours by road during peak congestion, especially considering the three-hour-earlier reporting and car-loading period. “Also, the high cost of ₹7,875 per vehicle plus individual passenger fares is not affordable for most families,” he said. “The concept is innovative but its timing is highly unsuitable. They should have announced this around December for the New Year’s celebration.”

The rail passenger associations fear that the Ro-Ro will eat up space that otherwise could be used to run more Ganpati special trains. At present, Central Railway has announced 250 special trains and Western Railway will operate 44 special trains for the festival. The rail passenger associations said that running the Ro-Ro train would require a full set of operational staff (loco pilot, assistant, guards, train manager) and an entire path on the already saturated Konkan Railway route that could instead be used to operate Ganpati special trains.