New Delhi: The Indian Railways achieved a new milestone in freight movement on Saturday by successfully operating the country’s longest goods train, named ‘Rudrastra’.
The 4.5-kilometre-long freight train will operate between the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya (DDU) Division and the Dhanbad Division for quicker and transportation of freight.
“This is a new experiment, which will make freight transportation and loading quicker. This will not only save resources but also time,” Uday Singh Meena, divisional railway manager, DDU, said.
The East Central Railway operated the 4.5-km long ‘Rudrastra’ by coupling six box rakes and powering it with seven locomotives.
The 354-wagon ‘Rudrastra’ is not only the longest freight train operated in India. Officials claimed that there are no records to show that something like this has ever been tried elsewhere in Asia. Each wagon was loaded with 72 tonnes of goods during the journey.
“The trial run was conducted from the Ganjkhwaja railway station in Chandauli to Garhwa in Jharkhand on Thursday, covering a distance of 209 km in over 5 hours, at an average speed of 40.50 km per hour,” Singh said.
The train had two locomotives in front and one after every 59 wagons. In this way, seven locomotives were used to power the 345 wagons in a synchronised manner.