Multimodal in India: when rail beats road on the inland leg

The inland leg is where a lot of Indian EXIM cost hides. Choosing between rail and road is a per-lane calculation, not a policy.

Where rail wins - Long hauls to and from northern ICDs — Tughlakabad, Dadri, Kanpur — where road distance to a west-coast port exceeds roughly 1,000 km. - High container volumes that can fill or nearly fill a rake. - Lanes with predictable, non-urgent cargo where a day of transit variance is acceptable.

Where road still wins - Shorter hinterland moves from a port to a factory within a few hundred kilometres. - Time-critical cargo, or cargo with a tight vessel cut-off. - Locations without a convenient ICD, where the drayage at both ends erodes the rail saving.

The numbers to compare honestly Compare door-to-port total cost and total time, including: haulage to the ICD, terminal handling at the ICD, rail freight, port handling, and any additional free-time exposure created by the longer transit. Rail's headline per-container rate is often lower while the delivered cost is level.

Reliability planning Build the plan around cut-offs. If the rake schedule means your container reaches the port two days before cut-off, you have a workable buffer. One day is not a buffer.