City receives large consignment of vehicles in specially made rakes

The goods yard in North Coimbatore railway station received a large consignment of 125 mini vans from a private automobile company based at Rudrapur in Uttarakhand in 25 Newly Modified Goods (NMG) rakes attached with a goods train on Thursday.

According to officials, passenger coaches that are 21 years old are converted to air brake coaches during periodical overhauling to carry automobiles. These are known as NMG coaches. The coaches are inter-connected and so the vehicles can be driven in.

These types of coaches were safer, faster and very economical for automobile manufacturers to reach out to their dealers across the country, said a railway official.

“This is the first such large consignment of mini vans received at North Coimbatore this year. Last year, we had received cars,” the official added.

When contacted, the private transporter said bringing large number of vehicles in a single consignment is possible only with NMG rakes. The transportation cost reduced by 50 % compared to bringing vehicles by road. This consignment is for a Coimbatore-based dealer.

NMG coaches were operated from the automobile hub in Walajabad in Tamil Nadu under Southern Railway. The other auto hub was functioning at Farukhnagar in Northern Railway. Steps were being taken to upgrade these facilities, the official said.