As part of its efforts to push its freight traffic movement, the Mysuru Division of South Western Railway loaded five rakes of two-wheelers from Kadakola near Nanjangud on the outskirts of Mysuru in the last month.
The Newly Modified Goods (NMG) rakes, which have a composition of 25 coaches to carry automobiles, can transport 1,000 two-wheelers.
The Division loaded five NMG rakes of two-wheelers in the last month from Kadakola, which is close to one of India’s major two-wheeler manufacturing facility. The two wheelers were despatched to different destinations like Changsari of North Frontier Railways, Sankrail Goods Terminal of South Eastern Railway in West Bengal, Nautarwa of North Eastern Railway in Uttar Pradesh and Sarai of East Central Railway in Bihar.
“In total, these five NMG rakes carried around 5,500 two-wheelers, generating around ₹1 crore revenue to the division,” said a statement issued by the Mysuru Division Railways.
Ever since the Mysuru Railway Division constituted the Business Development Unit (BDU) in July this year in line with the guidelines issued by Railway Board, consistent efforts had been made to widen its freight basket. The efforts had yielded good results, which had helped bring back the automobile traffic to the division after a gap of two years, the statement added.
In addition to transporting two-wheelers, the division has also loaded ginger, arecanut, pepper and other agricultural commodities, facilitating farmers to transport their products. “Iron ore was loaded for the first time from the division to destinations like Goa and Roha,” the statement said.
Divisional Railway Manager Rahul Agarwal said Business Development Units (BDU) had been constituted even at the sub-divisional levels at commercially important places like Hassan, Arsikere, Davangere, Subramanya and Shivamogga. These BDUs will comprise supervisors from the Commercial and Operations Department. This will help the Railways reach out to local markets and farmers effectively and enabling them with ease of doing business, the Railways said.
The Division, aiming to double its freight volumes, had recorded a 16% increase in freight loading for October this year compared to October 2019. To push transportation of agricultural products through Kisan Special, selected agriculture commodities are given upto 50% concession.
As part of its digital initiative, the South Western Railway has also launched a mobile application called SWIFT (Single Window Interface for Freight Transportation), which acts as a one-point destination for goods and parcel booking. Customers can download SWIFT application from Playstore.
