Assessment of Sustainable Initiatives in the Containerized Freight Railways of India using Fuzzy AHP Framework

Abstract

Since Independence, Indian Railways (IR) has been felicitating trade and development and often termed as bloodline of the nation. But the nationwide fourth longest railway network in the world has somehow not been able to increase its quality of service especially when freight transportation is concerned. In order to boost trade growth, IR has to extend its reach by connecting the interior most parts of the country to the mainland and thus seaports. Therefore, expansion of rail network is a necessity in India in order to fuel economic development apart from passenger transportation. IR has played a significant role in transporting freight between ports and hinterlands; however containerized freight is poorly addressed and its sustainability is at risk. The market share of railways in carrying containerized freight has contracted to about 18% in 2018, which is worrisome from the sustainability point of view. This provides an extent to develop a framework by identifying and assessing the sustainable initiatives of containerized freight of rail in India. This study uses Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) to assess the sustainable initiatives and discern that for railways; economic dimension should be preferred over social and environment dimension to accomplish sustainability. Similarly, social dimension should be contemplated after environmental dimension while constructing a sustainable framework. Moreover, the paper also concludes that out of 17 sub-categories used for study, ‘Diesel locomotives are replaced with electric ones’ is most important one and ‘Transporting containerized cargo between ports and far located hinterland’ is least considered sub-factor.