RANI

Northeast Frontier Railway has started transportation of rubber sheets and products as a new stream of goods traffic from Tripura to various destinations. Substantial production of rubber sheets takes place in Tripura. More than 90,000 tonnes of rubber is produced annually in Tripura which is having about 87000 hectares of rubber plantation.

Tripura exported more than 53000 tonnes of rubber during the financial year 2020-21 to places like Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Delhi. Transportation normally takes place through road sector. As part of the BDU initiative of the Lumding division of Northeast Frontier Railway Road shows were conducted at different locations of Tripura in co-operation with the state government. Interactions with rubber traders were held. Rubber is mainly produced in West Tripura, South Tripura and Sipahijala districts of Tripura which are served by railway stations like Sabroom, Belonia, Udaipur, Agartala and Jirania. Rubber traders were informed that they can easily transport rubber from their nearest convenient railway station at a much cheaper rate in comparison to road sector. For example; cost of transportation of per tonne of rubber by railway from Jirania to Delhi, Jalandhar and Sealdah is Rs. 2492.80, Rs. 2342.60 and Rs. 1745.90 respectively. In comparison, the cost of transportation of per tonne by road for the same distance is Rs. 4500.00, Rs. 5500.00 and Rs. 3500.00. Low cost of transportation will also result in overall cheaper availability of products to the end customer as transport costs reduce.

Northeast Frontier Railway has decided to operate short distance parcel special train comprising 10 general class coaches. These parcel special trains will run exclusively within the jurisdiction of N.F. Railway depending o­n demand.

It has been planned to run o­ne weekly Special Parcel train between Katihar to Jorhat Town and vice versa with stoppages at Kishanganj, New Jalpaiguri, Dhupguri, Falakata, New Coochbehar, Gosaigaon Hat, Kokrajhar, New Bongaigaon, Barpeta Road, Nalbari, Rangiya, Guwahati, Jagiroad, Chaparmukh, Hojai, Lanka, Lumding, Dimapur, Furketing and Mariani.Another Special Parcel train will run daily between Lumding to Silchar and Agartala and vice versa with stoppages at Lumding, New Haflong, Badarpur, Silchar, New Karimganj, Dharmanagar, Kumarghat, Ambasa and Jirania. This new initiative by Northeast Frontier Railway is expected to be helpful for local producers and traders in transportation of their commodities in much a cheaper and eco-friendly way than the road sector.

These Special Parcel trains will operate o­n time table basis. So transporters will be able to know about the expected time of delivery of their booked commodities. Traders and producers from North Bihar and North Bengal areas will be able to send their local produce towards Upper Assam, Dimapur, Barak Valley and Agartala with assured timely delivery. Similarly traders from Upper Assam, Nagaland, Tripura and Barak Valley areas will also be able to transport their commodities to North Bihar and North Bengal areas.

Interested transporters can contact 9957550935 or sent e-mail at cptm@nfr.rainet.gov.in for further details.