During the lockdown, Western Railway (WR) has continued to transport essential commodities through Parcel special trains to various parts of the country, especially medicines & medical goods as a prime need in the present scenario.
- In continuation to this, on 16th June 2020, 3 parcel special trains, including a milk rake left from WR.
- One parcel special train left from Bandra Terminus to Ludhiana and the other from Dewas to Jabalpur.
- A milk rake also left from Palanpur to Hind Terminal.
- Meanwhile, WR has transported till now, various essential commodities weighing more than 13 million tonnes by its 6437 rakes of goods trains, even during the difficult time of lockdown.
Since 23rd March to 15th June, 2020, commodities weighing more than 57,500 tonnes have been transported by WR through its 338 parcel special trains, which included agricultural produce, medicines, fish, milk etc, as per a press release issued by Shri Ravinder Bhakar, Chief Public Relations Officer of WR. The earnings generated through this transportation, has been approx Rs 18.44 crore.
- During this period, 43 milk special trains were run by Western Rly, with a load of more than 32 thousand tonnes and 100% utilization of the wagons, generating revenue of approx Rs 5.51 crore.
- Similarly, 290 Covid-19 special parcel trains with a load of more than 23 thousand tonnes were also run to transport essential commodities, for which the revenue earned was Rs 11.85 crore.
- In addition to this, 5 indented rakes carrying 2378 tonnes were also run with 100% utilization generating revenue of more than Rs 1.07 crore.
During the lockdown period from 22nd March till 15th June, 2020, total 6437 rakes of goods trains have been used by WR to supply essential commodities amounting to 13.02 million tonnes.
12,767 freight trains have been interchanged with other zonal railways, in which 6,398 trains were handed over and 6,369 trains taken over at different interchange points.
339 Millennium Parcel rakes of Parcel Vans / Railway Milk Tankers (RMTs) have been sent to different parts of the country to supply as per the demands of essential items such as milk powder, liquid milk and other general consumer goods.
Loss of Passenger Earnings Due to Lockdown:
- The total loss of earnings over Western Railway on account of Corona Virus, has been over Rs 1331 crore, which includes Rs 190.63 crore for suburban section and Rs 1140.54 crore for non-suburban, Shri Bhakar stated.
- Inspite of this, resulting to cancellation of tickets till now, Western Railway has ensured to return refund amount of Rs. 342.03 crore.
- It’s worth mentioning that in this refund amount, Mumbai division alone, has ensured refund of more than Rs 159.90 crore.
- Till now, 52.40 lakh passengers have cancelled their tickets over entire Western Railway & have received their refund amount accordingly.
Source: Western Railway-Press Release
