GUWAHATI, April 18 - Maligaon-headquartered Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has operated over 400 freight rakes to transport essential commodities since commencement of the nationwide lockdown.
�NFR carried 408 freight rakes to and from various parts of the country from March 23 to April 16. Items carried were unloaded at the goods sidings of various states within the jurisdiction of NFR as per requirement. The items carried included 172 rakes of FCI foodgrains, seven rakes of other foodgrains, 19 rakes of sugar, 12 rakes of salt, 25 rakes of cement, 24 rakes of mixed food items, six rakes of edible oil, 46 rakes of coal for power plants, 32 rakes of fertiliser, 27 rakes of petroleum, oil and lubricant (POL) products, seven rakes of iron and steel and eight container rakes, among other items. While the number of wagons in a rake depends on the materials being carried, one wagon carries about 58-60 tonnes of goods,� said Subhanan Chanda, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of NFR.
He said that freight trains loaded with foodgrains were unloaded at places like Batnaha, New Jalpaiguri and Malda Court sidings under Katihar Division and Udaipur in Lumding Division, while salt and foodgrains were unloaded at Barpeta Road and Changsari under Rangiya Division and wheat was unloaded at Silchar and sugar at Jirania stations under Lumding Division.
�Potato was unloaded at New Tinsukia and foodgrains were unloaded at Jorhat and Tinsukia under Tinsukia Division,� Chanda said.
He added that NFR has also started small size parcel trains for movement of items in small quantities for businessmen or State government departments.
�A total of 25 parcel express trains from various locations carrying items like milk, milk products, fast food and baby food have been unloaded in NFR till Thursday,� Chanda said.
