Railways moved 82 million tonnes essentials in May, 25% more than April

June 11, 2020: In the month of May, Indian Railways has transported 82.27 million tonnes of essential commodities compare to 65.14 million tonnes in April, an increase of more than 25 percent.

In total from April 1, 2020, to June 1 Indian Railways has transported 175.46 million tonnes of essential commodities. From April 1 to June 9 Railways loaded 12.56 million tonnes of food grains as compared to 6.7 million tonnes in the same period last year.

“In order to ensure the timely delivery of essential commodities for citizens and goods vital for energy & infrastructure sector, Indian Railways has maintained its freight corridors fully functional in spite of the Covid-19 lockdown and has been successful in meeting the needs of both the households sector and industry,” says the release.

Wagons
From March 23 to June 9 more than 31.90 lakh wagons carried supplies to keep the supply chain functional. Of these, 17.81 lacs wagons carried essential commodities like food grains, salt, sugar, milk, edible oil, onions, fruits & vegetables, petroleum products, coal, fertilizers etc. throughout the country.

Parcel trains
From March 22 to June 6 total 3,861 parcel trains have also been run out by Indian Railways of which 3,755 are timetabled trains. Total 1,37,030 tonnes of consignment has been loaded in these parcel trains.

“Transportation of essential items like medical supplies, medical equipment, food, etc in small parcel sizes is very important during the lockdown. In order to fill in this vital need, Indian Railways has made railway parcel vans available for quick mass transportation by e-commerce entities and other customers including state governments. Railways are running time-tabled parcel special trains on select routes, to ensure uninterrupted supply of essential items,” says the release.

Zonal railways are responsible for identifying and notifying routes for these parcel special trains. Presently these trains are being operated on 96 routes. These routes have been identified to include:

i) Connectivity between major cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, & Hyderabad.

ii) Connectivity from state-capitals/important cities to all parts of the states.

iii) Connectivity to the North-eastern part of the country.

iv) Supply of milk and dairy products from surplus regions (Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh) to high demand regions.

v) Supply of other essential items (agricultural inputs, medicines and medical equipment) from producing regions to other parts.

24/7 control offices
Indian Railways staff are working at various good sheds, stations and control offices on a 24/7 basis to ensure that the supply of essential items for the nation does not get affected. Locomotive pilots and guards are efficiently running the trains. The key maintenance staff of track, signalling, overhead equipment, locomotives, coaches and wagons are maintaining the infrastructure in good fettle to ensure the smooth running of freight trains.

The institutional mechanism put in place to escalate issues faced by zonal railways in goods train operations to control room set up by the ministry of home affairs (MHA) on a real-time basis through railway officers as part of the MHA control room.