Railways tightens control over Indent Mafia for Bangladesh-bound wagons

It was brought to Indian Railways’ Official notice that indents were placed well in advance to corner wagon availability. These ‘indent mafia’ of sorts would then sublet the wagons, at a premium, to exporters desperately seeking to move their goods to Bangladesh.

An indent is the Wagon Registration Fee paid by customer in demand of Railways Wagons.

Earlier this year, the railways had made submission of a letter of credit (LC) while booking an indent compulsory. Details of the LC are fed on the Freight Operations Information System of the Indian Railways. These include information such as LC number, date of issue and expiry, name of bank and beneficiary, tonnage moved by any other mode of transport on the same LC.

The move makes it mandatory for any entity that books a wagon headed for Bangladesh from India to specify the commodity being transported.

This is being done to intensify a crackdown on “indent mafia” that corners the availability of wagons in advance and profiteers from the scarcity.