Western Railway Hungry for Cargo moves north

"Hungry for Cargo" is one of the charters enumerated in the Tenets of Philosophy adopted by Indian Railways. Various efforts initiated by Western Railway in this direction has yielded positive results. Under the able guidance of Alok Kansal - General Manager of Western Railway, the Business Development Units (BDUs) of WR are being closely monitored which has resulted in not only improvement in parcel traffic, but also acquiring better freight opportunities in terms of new traffic.

As a result of the sustained efforts, Western Railway has run 534 parcel trains from 1st April, 2021 to 6th December, 2021 to transport essential commodities to various parts of the country. During this period, the loading in goods trains recorded 58 million tonnes as compared to 52 million tonnes in the corresponding period of last year, which is 11% higher

According to a press release issued by Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway, from 1st April, 2021 to 6th December, 2021, Western Railway has transported commodities weighing more than 2.09 lakh tonnes through its various parcel special trains, which included agricultural produce, medicines, medical equipment, fish, milk. The revenue generated through this transportation, has been approx Rs. 74.56 crore. 125 Milk Special trains have been run by WR, with a load of more than 88 thousand tonnes and 100% utilization of the wagons.

Similarly, 141 COVID-19 special parcel trains with a load of approx. 28,000 tonnes were also run to transport essential commodities. In addition to this, 147 indented rakes carrying approx. 61,000 tonnes were also run with 100% utilization. To help the farmers find new markets for their produce and also for its economical and fast transportation, 121 Kisan Rails with load of more than 32,000 tonnes have also been run during this period from various Divisions.

During the period from 1st April to 6th December, 2021 total 26,099 rakes of goods trains have been run by WR and carried 57.94 million tonnes of essential commodities. 55,723 freight trains were interchanged with other zonal railways, in which 27,877 trains were handed over and 27,846 trains were taken over at different interchange points. Business Development Units (BDUs) are in constant contact with the existing and probable freight customers to encourage them to transport their goods through railways with the incentives introduced by the Railway Board for quick, reliable, economical & bulk transportation of their goods.

GM Kansal guided the Team & developed proposals for future increase in Railable share. These include Port connectivity to HAZIRA, Railway siding to upcoming cement plant near TIMBA, Multimodal logistics at Vasai, Warehouses at Karambeli, 12 MT of railable cargo from Ports etc. These efforts shall put WR on 100 MT club member on IR in near future.