Chance meeting with Railway Minister in flight helps entrepreneur pitch business proposal

Kolkata entrepreneur's business proposal on a paper napkin to Railway Minister leads to railway administration taking action.

Entrepreneur Akshay Satnaliwala could hardly imagine that a business proposal to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on a paper napkin during a flight would spring the railway administration in action in no time.

Eastern Railway general manager Milind K Deouskar and other senior officers met Satnaliwala at the ER headquarters in Kolkata and discussed the freight prospects suggested by his firm, an official said on February 8.

ER spokesperson Kausik Mitra said Satnaliwala, director of a solid waste management company in West Bengal, "explained the schematic flow of solid waste to various industries with prospective buyers in different parts of the country like Raipur in Chhattisgarh and Rajgangpur in Odisha and other clusters through the railways."

He said the ER general manager, responding to the business proposals by Mr. Satnaliwala, offered flexible terms for carrying solid and other waste through the railway route as a cheaper mode of transportation.

"Such bulk quantity transport of solid and plastic waste through the railway route will not only be beneficial for the company, but will help in recycling of waste thereby reducing pollution at the same time," Mr. Mitra said.

The Kolkata-based entrepreneur, who was in the same Delhi-Kolkata flight with Mr. Vaishnaw on February 2, hurriedly wrote a proposal for solid waste movement by railway freight on a paper napkin as that was the only piece of paper that he could lay his hands on at that time.