Indian Railways has created history as its 88 coach freight train Annapurna carrying foodgrains covered 1,634 kilometres in less than 50 hours.
Annapurna Freight Train, with 88 coach travelled from Dhandharikalan in Punjab to New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal in 49 hours 50 minutes.
The distance of 1,634 kilometres used to take 96 to 100 hours. The freight train has promptly transported food to ten needy states.
This is for the first time Railways has transported foodgrains in such a large scale. It is 137 per cent more than last year.
Jai Kisan Train
To ensure delivery of bigger volumes at a faster speed, Indian Railways have innovated by joining two freight trains together. Success Stories and Innovations have come from Northern Railways and South Central Railways.
Northern Railway has formed 5000 tonnes long lead long haul loaded foodgrain trains. 25 such Annapoorna trains have been formed and run by NR upto 16.04.2020. They covered the states like Assam, Bihar, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Nagaland, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Mizoram. These long lead long haul grain trains have gone up to New Bongaigaon (NBQ) in NFR.
Like NR , As part of this endeavour, now the South Central Zone of Indian Railways too has come up with a unique concept of running “Jai Kisan” Special freight trains so as to ensure speedy delivery of foodgrains to different parts of the country.
Under this concept, two freight trains loaded from two different originating stations are clubbed at the nearest junction point and moved as single train up to the common junction point of the destination stations taking the advantage of path availability due to non-running of passenger carrying trains.
84 wagons with 5200 tonnes capacity: Under normal circumstances, one freight train containing 42 covered wagons loaded with food grains carries around 2600 tonnes. But in the new concept two freight trains means 42+42 =84 covered wagons with 5200 tonnes capacity food grains will be moved in a single path. This concept drastically reduces the journey time of the freight trains to their respective destinations.
