Indian Railways delivers 6.75 lakh wagons of essential commodities during lockdown

The country's lifeline, Indian Railways continues to deliver essentials through its freight services during the 21-day nationwide lockdown.

The lockdown which has been in effect since March 24, was imposed to check the spread of the coronavirus that has wreaked havoc across the world.

"Since March 23, the Railways has transported approximately 6.75 lakh wagons of commodities, including about 4.50 lakh wagons of essential commodities like food grains, salt, sugar, edible oil, coal and petroleum products," read an official statement.

The ministry further informed, during the week of April 2 to 8, Railways delivered total 2,58,503 wagons of commodities out of which 1,55,512 wagons contained essential items. This includes 21,247 wagons of foodg rains, 11,336 wagons of fertilizer, 12,4759 wagons of coal and 7,665 wagons of petroleum products.

It is also working closely with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and has moved more than 800 rakes carrying over 20 Lakh MT food grains across the country since March 24.

The FCI is able to meet the increasing demand of food grains by gearing up the pace of supply of wheat and rice throughout the country mostly by Rail, it further read.Railways has also introduced 109 time-table parcel trains to supply essential commodities including perishable horticulture produce, seeds, milk and dairy products.

Approximately, 59 routes (109 trains) for parcel special trains have been notified since the beginning of the lockdown. With this, almost all the important cities of India will get connected for transportation of essential and perishable goods at a fast speed. These services are expected to be further scaled up as per requirement, read the statement.