CHIKHLI

WR TO RUN SPECIAL TRAIN o­n BILIMORA – WAGHAI NARROW GAUGE SECTION

For the convenience of local residents, people travelling for business & employment as well as for the benefit of passengers & tourists, Western Railway will run a Special Train between Billimora & Wagai. This train will be Unreserved Train except the Vistadome coach which will be fully reserved.

According to a press release issued by Shri Sumit Thakur – Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway, Train No. 09071 Bilimora – Waghai Special train will depart from Bilimora at 19.40 hrs o­n all days and will reach Waghai at 22.40 hrs, the same day. This train will run daily from Thursday, 23^rd December, 2021 till further orders. Similarly, Train No. 09072 Waghai– Bilimora Special train will depart from Waghai at 06.00 hrs o­n all days and will reach Bilimora at 09.20 hrs, o­n the same day. This train will run daily from Friday, 24^thDecember, 2021, till further orders. Enroute this train will halt at Gandevi, Chikhli Road, Rankuva, Dholikuva, Anaval, Unai and Vansada Road, Kevdi Road, Kala-Amba and Dungarda stations in both directions. This train comprises of unreserved Second Class Seating coaches as well as a fully reserved AC Tourist coach.

The booking of the AC Tourist coach of Train Nos. 09071 & 09072 will open with immediate effect with advance reservation period of 7 days, at nominated PRS counters and IRCTC website.

For detailed information regarding timings of halts and composition, passengers may please visit www.enquiry.indianrail.gov.in. Passengers are requested by Western Railway, to adhere to all norms, SOPs related to COVID-19 during boarding, travelling and at the destination.

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WR/ Press Release No 2021/05Mumbai, 25^th May, 2021

MUMBAI CENTRAL DIVISION OF WESTERN RAILWAY RUNS 100 KISAN RAILS FOR TRANSPORTATION OF CHIKOO

The Kisan Rails are an initiative to help farmers to send their perishable agro products to inter-state markets without any delay. Western Railway had run the first Kisan Rail o­n 24th November, 2020 between Laxmibai Nagar near Indore and New Guwahati. Mumbai Central Division made a debut of its first Kisan Rail o­n 28th January, 2021 from Dahanu Road station to Adarsh Nagar station in Delhi, by kick starting chikoo traffic after 16 years, and now it has reached the century mark. This achievement has been possible with constant monitoring and motivation by Shri Alok Kansal, General Manager of Western Railway. He congratulated the team of Mumbai Central Division o­n this remarkable feat.

According to a press release issued by Shri Sumit Thakur- Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Rly, the Kisan rails are benefitting all sections of farming community from Dahanu, Gholvad region in State of Maharashtra & Valsad, Udvada, Chikhli, Navsari, Amalsad region in State of Gujarat. The Kisan Rail operations & the scheme under ‘Operations Greens Schemes from Tomato, o­nion and Potato (TOP) to all fruits & vegetables (TOTAL) introduced and extended by MoFPI has played a pivotal role in helping the entire agricultural community. The farmers are able to venture long distance markets with ease of transportation facilities provided by Railways and thus receive fair price for their produce. The agricultural community prefers the rail services to obtain the benefits under MoFPI’s 50% subsidy scheme due to less hassles of paperwork & other formalities under IR operations. Further, the assured, quick services have brought paradigm shift in transportation of agricultural produce by rail. Shri Thakur said that the chikoo traffic which was recaptured after a gap of 16 years commenced o­n January 28th and picked up steam in March 2021. The cumulative revenue through this traffic is Rs 7.6 Cr.

Shri Thakur further added that Railways undertook integrated steps to get the traffic of chikoo o­n board.Amalsad station was opened for handling goods traffic. A ramp was created and motorable pathway made at Amalsad, to facilitate loading. Sustained marketing efforts were made to reach out to the farmers for transportation of their produce. Lighting facilities were improved at loading and unloading stations with RPF escorting these trains. The produce was transported mainly from Amalsad & Dahanu Rd to Adarsh Nagar in Delhi. Maintaining the time of arrival at Adarsh Nagar around midnight was a challenge, withtransit time of around 24-26 hrs; as the customer desired that the train reach between 00:00 hrs to 2:00 am, so as to directly catch the markets by 7:00 am in Delhi and it's periphery. Running o­n a Time Tabled schedule, Western Railway was able to achieve this goal with almost 95% accuracy. This success was achieved and made possible with the concerted efforts of BDU of Mumbai Division and various departments.

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