Railways the preferred mode of transport during the lockdown and unlock period have played an important role in transporting essential commodities and freight to keep the supply chain intact. It also played a crucial role in the life of farmers by introducing Kisan Rail for transport of perishables like fruits and vegetables.
- Kisan Rail received a good response and so far carried over 12,400 tonnes upto 7.11.2020.
- Perishables like pomegranate, capsicum, green chilli, ginger, lemon, iced fish and other parcels are transported in Kisan Rail.
- Central Railway is running Kisan Rail from Devlali to Muzaffarpur (tri-weekly), Orange Kisan Rail from Nagpur to Adarsh Nagar Delhi (weekly) and Link Kisan Rail from Sangola to Manmad (tri-weekly) and Sangola to Secunderabad (weekly).
- Central Railway has also transported 75,282 tonnes of essential commodities like medicine and pharma products, e-commerce items, mail and other hard parcels through 597 timetabled parcel trains and 49,203 tonnes through parcel special trains.
- During the last 7 months and upto 9.11.2020, Central Railway has run about 13,400 freight trains and transported various commodities in 6.44 lakh wagons at an average of 2,776 wagons daily.
- It transported coal in 2.50 lakh wagons, container 1.95 lakh wagons, cement 42,985 wagons, food grains 5,127 wagons, fertilizer 30,222 wagons, petrol, oil and lubricants 60,541 wagons, steel 16,973 wagons, sugar 3303 wagons, onion 7,805 wagons, de-oiled cake 2,327 wagons and miscellaneous freight in 28,727 wagons.
Recent Achievement:
Central Railway transported Mahindra Automobiles from Kalamboli to Benapole, Bangladesh, Maize from Bhusawal to Darshana, Bangladesh, Steel Pipes to Tinsukia from Nagothane, Mahindra’s automobiles from Nashik to Chitpur.
- Apart from the most popular amongst Kisan Rail & now Santra Rail from Nagpur, Soya Seeds from Badnera to Pollachi and new stations have been opened for the first time as freight/parcel loading points and also transported freight to new destinations like Guna, Jamnagar etc.
- All this new business was possible due to intensive marketing of the Business Development Unit set-up across all divisions of Central Railway.
- Central Railway has set-up Business Development Units at Zonal & Divisional level recently.
- These Business Development Units taking into consideration new proposals, schemes and suggestions submitted by the different freight aggregators, new customers, trade bodies and logistics companies.
- These initiatives by the BDUs yielded many new traffic and bridged a bond with trade and industry for new business.
- The Business Development Unit also aggressively markets new proposals and flexible schemes with local farmers, loaders, APMC and individuals and aggregate their demands.
- Business Development Unit of Mumbai Division has started its loading of automobiles through its 23 NMG from Kalamboli to Benapole recently, one rake of steel pipes were loaded from Nagothane to Tinsukia.
- Business Development Unit of Pune Division through its concerted efforts has regained the automobile traffic attained a huge increase in its loading thereby adding to the overall performance and revenue of the division.
- In the last 7months of this financial year till October 2020, transported automobiles in 46 NMG rakes which was equivalent to the automobile loading performance of the entire financial year of 2019-2020.
- There is a huge scope for automobile traffic in the next five months due to continuous liaison of BDU team of Pune division.
- Due to the attractive New Freight Policy introduced by Indian Railways, using Mini rake for beyond 1500 Kms DOC loaded from Kalmeshwar to Azara (NFR) for the first time, Soya seeds from Badnera to Pollachi, Tamilnadu, Wheat from Khandwa to Parbhani.
- For the First time ever 3 indents of maize for export from Bhusawal Goods Shed to Darsana (Bangladesh).
- Over Nagpur division after 4 years wheat traffic is regained at Betul Goods Shed, Tractor loading from Ajni to Phillaur, Firozpur, Cement loading to new destinations to Guna, Jamnagar from Badli.
- Indent freight/Parcel loading is also picking up, Capturing Banana traffic from Raver/Savda/Nimbhora.
- Giving a fillip to BDU initiatives Badnera has been opened for permanent Parcel traffic, Hinganghat is opened as parcel terminal for loading of textile cotton balls, seeds and yarn traffic for Bangladesh and other places.
The Industry is more interested & willing for Rail Transportation of Goods and Commodities due to flexible schemes, low tariff, faster movement, safe and secure transportation and more importantly environment friendly.
Source: Central Railway-Press Release | Image Credit: Central Railway
