Western Railway’s Multidisciplinary Business Development Units are constantly exploring new avenues to tap the freight traffic. In continuation of this, BDU of the Vadodara Division recently transported galvanized boxes as well as mixed general goods to Patna and New Guwahati respectively.
According to a press release issued by WR CPRO Sumit Thakur, in spite of time lost under COVID lockdown, the Ministry of Railways is focusing on surpassing last year’s freight figures. The freight trains are being operated 24X7 across the country. Multi-disciplinary Business Development Units have also been set up for tapping potential traffic and providing customized facilities in transporting the freight. Further in this direction, two new types of parcel traffic have been clinched recently by the Business Development Unit of Vadodara Division.
Galvanized boxes were transported from Miyagam Karjan to Patna, a distance of 1,595 km. This traffic earned revenue of approx. Rs 1.10 lakh. Another traffic of mixed general goods was transported from Ranoli to New Guwahati Goods Shed, a distance of almost 2450 km. The earnings generated through this traffic was about Rs 1.35 lakh.
Thakur further added that with a thrust on freight, CONCOR India inducted scheduled round trip of double-stack container trains between Mundra Port – Khatuwas and Pipavav Port – Khatuwas on daily basis. The distance covered is 996 km & 1,085 km respectively, with a target speed of 55 km per hour. The first such train called Girnar departed from Pipavav Port to Khatuwas on 17th September 2020. These are additional timetabled container train services on a scheduled path on specified streams.
Thakur stated that from 23rd March to 19th September 2020, commodities weighing more than 1.29 lakh tonnes have been transported by Western Railway through its 552 parcel special trains, which mainly included agricultural produce, medicines, fish, milk. The revenue generated through this transportation has been about Rs 43.35 crore. During this period, 91 milk special trains were run by Western Railway, with a load of above 69 thousand tonnes and 100% utilization of the wagons.
Similarly, 419 Covid-19 special parcel trains with a load of more than 41 thousand tonnes were also run to transport various essential commodities. In addition to this, 42 indented rakes carrying almost 19 thousand tonnes were also run with almost 100% utilization. During the lockdown period from 22nd March till 19th September 2020, a total of 15,415 rakes of goods trains has been used by WR to supply essential commodities amounting to 32.43 million tonnes. 30,279 freight trains have been interchanged with other zonal railways, in which 15,127 trains were handed over and 15,152 trains taken over at different interchange points.
On 20th September 2020, three Parcel Special trains left from various stations of Western Railway. These included a milk special train from Palanpur to Hind Terminal and 2 parcel special trains, one from Bandra Terminus to Jammu Tawi and the other from Okha to New Guwahati.
The total loss of revenue over Western Railway on account of Corona Virus has been approx. Rs 2,633 crore, which includes about Rs 400 crore for the suburban section and approx. Rs 2,233 crore for non -suburban. In spite of this, resulting in the cancellation of tickets from 1st March 2020 to 19th Sept 2020, Western Railway has ensured to return the refund amount of Rs. 431.77 crore. It’s worth mentioning that in this refund amount, the Mumbai division alone has ensured a refund of more than Rs 208 crore. Till now, 66.96 lakh passengers have canceled their tickets over the entire Western Railway & have received their refund amount accordingly.
