The railways today offered 8000 SLR (seating cum luggage rake) coaches on lease for parcel purposes.
Currently, there are 2000 SLR coaches which are leased out by railways but we are offering 8000 more on the lease, Railway Board Member (Traffic) Mohd Jamshed said here today.
The rear coach of the train which is also used by the guard called SLR. One SLR can carry upto 4 tonne of parcel.
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Facing a slow growth in freight, railways is exploring various ways to perk up the loadings including seeking suggestions from stakeholders, offering certain schemes and running special parcel trains.
Railways have transported 816.52 million tonne (MT) of goods during April-December this year as against 808.57 MT in the corresponding period last year.
Jamshed hoped that the loadings will pick up in the last quarter of the current fiscal.
"We expect heavy movement of goods during January and March period because the last quarter always attract maximum loadings," he said.
Jamshed is holding a series of meetings with stakeholders seeking their views on the possible ways to increase freight traffic.
There were meetings with auto industry and fertiliser sector.
"Today we are in a position to carry more loadings and reach upto about 1200 MT target. There will be 2500 km long new line which will be shortly added to the rail network as capacity augmentation," Jamshed said.
Besides, loadings, he said facilities for passengers are also being upgraded.
