Railways to transport water for drought-affected Latur

Railways will transport water to the drought-affected Latur district in Maharashtra in summer and the public transporter is keeping two goods trains ready for this purpose.

Rail Minister Suresh Prabhu has directed the concerned officials to make necessary arrangements for it, a senior  official said on Friday.

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Two goods trains will be deployed in Latur during the summer season and the trips of the trains will be arranged according to the requirement. The carrying capacity of water is around 55,000 litres a wagon.

According to the official, railways has made arrangement for two goods trains consisting of 50 tanker-like wagons each (BTPN wagons) for the purpose of loading and transporting water in the drought-affected areas of Latur district on the request from Maharashtra government.

Accordingly, the Kota workshop will undertake steam cleaning of wagons for the purpose of loading drinking water.

The two goods trains will be deployed in Pandharpur-Latur section of Solapur division for loading water. The first goods train will be ready for water loading after steam cleaning on April 8, while the second goods train is expected to be ready around April 15.

Earlier, on a demand from Rajasthan government, many goods trains were deployed to transport water from Nasirabad to Bhilwada in Ajmer division from January 2016 onwards which will continue up to the summer season.