The South Central Railway (SCR) broke some records by running two long-haul freight trains.
‘Trishul’ comprising three freight trains of 177 wagons and this started on October 7 from Kondapalli station of Vijayawada division to Khurda division of East Coast Railway. Second was ‘Garuda’ that ran on October 8 from Raichur of Guntakal division to Manuguru of Secunderabad division. In both cases, the long-haul trains comprised empty, open wagons for loading of coal meant for predominantly thermal power stations.
SCR is a one of the five major freight loading railways and a bulk of freight traffic moves in certain arterial routes such as Visakhapatnam-Vijayawada-Gudur-Renigunta, Ballarshah-Kazipet-Vijayawada, Kazipet-Secunderabad-Wadi, and Vijayawada-Guntur-Guntakal sections. As a bulk of its freight traffic has to pass through these major routes, it is essential for SCR to maximise throughput available across these critical sections.
Long-haul trains, which are twice or multiple times longer than the normal composition of freight trains, provide a very effective solution to the problem of capacity constraints in critical sections. It also ensures saving of path across congested routes, quicker transit time, maximising throughput of critical sections and saving in crews, said a press release.
