Railways to bring milk from Guj to Mumbai as dairy stir

The railways has chipped in to transport milk from Gujarat to Mumbai as the protests by dairy farmers spilled over on the second day and threatened to affect the milk supply to major cities in Maharashtra.

Three such containers reached Mumbai from Gujarat today, an official said.

"The Western Railways has made special arrangements for supply of milk into Mumbai, as per the directives of Railways Minister Piyush Goyal. The decision is taken to counter the short supply due to the ongoing agitation called by farmers' organisation," the WR said in an official communication.

The Ahmedabad-Mumbai passenger will bring two tankers of milk to Mumbai every day in each trip. Each tanker has a capacity of 44,000 litres.

Western Railway said a "special permission" had been given to transport milk from Gujarat to Mumbai.

"Keeping in view the agitation (by dairy farmers) to halt milk supply in Maharashtra, special permission has been given to transport 12 milk containers of 44,000 litres each, to Mumbai by the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Central passenger in the next few days," the Western Railway tweeted.

The communication said, "There will be a total supply of 12 tankers of milk, which will take place for next six days. Each tanker has a capacity of 44,000 litres. Additionally, two more tankers of milk will be supplied from Anand to Mumbai through Anand-Mumbai Central train for the next some days".

"Milk tankers are being attached to Ahmedabad-Mumbai central passenger to mitigate the problems. Gujarat Dairy Development Corporation Limited (Amul brand) has requested the Western Railway to make provision for transportation of additional milk and we made arrangements for the same," Chief Public Relations Officer, Western Railway, Ravinder Bhakar said in a release.