Since the time of Iockdown to contain the spread of the Coronavirus, it is a moment of big achievement that Western Railway has crossed the figure of 500 Parcel special trains by running total 504 Parcel special trains during lockdown, to different parts of the country to transport about 1.11 Lakh tonnes of various essential commodities.
- In continuation to this, on 31st August, 2020 six parcel special trains, including a milk rake left from various stations of WR.
- These included 3 parcel specials viz Bandra Terminus to Jammu Tawi, Porbandar to Shalimar and Dewas to New Delhi; 2 indented rakes one from Karambeli to New Guwahati and the other from Kankaria to Benapol and a milk special rake from Palanpur to Hind Terminal.
- According to a press release issued by Shri Sumit Thakur – Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Rly, in yet another achievement, for offering swift, safe & economical logistics, Western Railway’s Business Development Unit of Vadodara division has started transportation of Steel from Kribhco Rail Infrastructure Ltd (KRIL), Pvt. Freight Terminal, Hazira in Gujarat to a new destination i.e Manubolu in Andhra Pradesh.
- The revenue earned through this transportation is Rs 38 lakh.
- The loading for this transportation was done on 28th August, 2020.
- Shri Thakur further added that, since 23rd March to 30th Aug, 2020, commodities weighing above 1.11 lakh tonnes have been transported by Western Rly through its 504 parcel special trains, which mainly included agricultural produce, medicines, fish, milk etc.
- The revenue generated through this transportation, has been approx. Rs 36.35 crore.
- During this period, 81 milk special trains were run by Western Rly, with a load of more than 61,500 tonnes and 100% utilization of the wagons.
- Similarly, 393 Covid-19 special parcel trains with a load of almost 37 thousand tonnes were also run to transport various essential commodities.
- In addition to this, 30 indented rakes carrying more than 12,800 tonnes were also run with almost 100% utilization.
- During the lockdown period from 22nd March till 30th August, 2020, total 13,423 rakes of goods trains have been used by WR to supply essential commodities amounting to 27.96 million tonnes.
- 26,448 freight trains have been interchanged with other zonal railways, in which 13,216 trains were handed over and 13,232 trains taken over at different interchange points.
- The revenue generated through these goods trains is approx. Rs 3534 crore.
Recent Progress of Western Railway:
In a bid to boost the freight traffic by Indian Railways, WR has set up multi-disciplinary Business Development Units (BDUs) at Zonal Headquarters and its Divisional Units. The aim of setting up these BDUs is to improve business prospects in freight market by incorporating new ideas and initiatives. As per the directives of the Railway Board, Western Railway has also come up with various incentive schemes to attract freight transporters to tie up with Railways for transportation of their goods and parcels.
- With the help of these freight incentives, Indian Railways is offering the traffic to freight customers at competitive unit rates, which are lower as compared to Road transportation and to add to this, freight will be delivered to the destination at speedier pace with assured timings.
- In continuation to this, WR’s newly created BDUs have created history with big achievements of two trains for Bangladesh within a week including WR’s 1st Goods train from Dhoraji station of Bhavnagar division on 4th August, 2020 & WR’s 1st parcel special train from Kankariya Goods shed, which departed for Benapole on 9th August, 2020.
- Shri Alok Kansal, General Manager of Western Railway, is monitoring all the major aspects of BDUs & motivating all concerned energetic teams of divisional BDUs, to achieve big success for new freight business in their respective divisions.
- The first breakthrough post setting up of the BDU was made when Bhavnagar division loaded the onion rake from Dhoraji to Bangladesh (Darshana) on 4th August, 2020.
- The onion rake covered 2437 kms from Dhoraji to Darshana.
Source: Western Railway-Press Release | Image Credit: Central Railway
