2 days ago
Railways plans to roll out Gati Shakti Freight trains for faster cargo movement
Indian Railways Freight Services: Indian Railways (IR) plays a crucial role in transporting bulk commodities which are essential for industry and energy sectors, food grains for national distribution, fertilizers for agriculture, and petroleum products. For long distances, rail transport has been more economical than road transport. It not only reduces overall logistics cost but also enables seamless supply chains across the country.
Now, in a bid to boost the logistics sector, the Ministry of Railways is planning to introduce a Gati Shakti Freight train. This new semi-high-speed train will be manufactured at Chennai-based Integral Coach Factory (ICF).
'ICF is planning to introduce Gati Shakti Freight EMU, a semi-high-speed train for e-commerce and FMCG logistics, equipped with advanced container handling systems and crew amenities,' said U Subba Rao, General Manager of ICF, on Friday while addressing the gathering on the occasion of India's 79th Independence Day.
The national transporter carries over 1.6 billon tonnes of freight traffic every year. Transporting freight by rail helps cut carbon emissions, lowers fuel costs and eases highway congestion. The freight carried by railways during 2020-21 was 1,233 million tonnes which increased to 1,591 million tonnes during 2023-24 i.e. a growth of 29 per cent.
The railways has taken up construction of two Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC) – Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) from Ludhiana to Sonnagar (1337 Km) and the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Terminal (JNPT) to Dadri (1506 Km). Out of total 2,843 Km, 2741 Route km (96.4%) have been commissioned and operational, which – carried 1,30,116 freight trains during FY 2024-25.
In a written statement in Lok Sabha on July 23, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said: 'Indian Railways is working on increasing the capacity of its network through Corridors approach. Corridors like HDN (High Traffic Density), Energy, Minerals and Cement are being implemented on priority.'
