23 Trains from (NOQ)NEW ALIPURDAUR to (CBD)Changrabandha

A business development meeting was held by Northeast Frontier Railway’s (NFR’s) Alipurduar division recently between N. F. Railway & delegations from Government of Bhutan having members from their foreign ministry, trade bodies and chamber of commerce etc. The meeting was held aiming towards trade collaborations between N. F. Railway and Government of Bhutan, supporting the logistics avenues for future linkages with Bhutan.

The delegations from Bhutan visited Hasimara railway station where an infrastructure is being strategically developed by N. F. Railway for enabling trade with Bhutan. A plan to build a siding along with a warehouse in collaborations with the Central Warehousing Corporation is underway to promote logistic trade with Bhutan. Infact, Indian Railways has already delivered its 1^stconsignment of goods to Bhutan through a multi-modal route consisting of 75 utility vehicles. The vehicles were transported from Chennai to Hasimara railway station by New Modified Goods (NMG) rake, a rake specially designed to transport light motor vehicles (LMV), that reached Alipurduar division o­n 28^thOctober, 2022. Further the consignment was taken to Bhutan by roadways. The delegation intends to visit Changrabandha station in the near future. Discussion related to movement of automobiles, cement, stone commodities etc and augmenting people to people connection and tourism development were also held.

The Alipurduar division relayed to the delegates of Bhutan Government, the vision of railways as the prime eco-friendly mode of transportation for goods logistic and as a sustainable option for mass movement in the country and also in the South-East Asia. Railway explained to the delegates of Bhutan Government the cost competitiveness and strategic abilities to transport goods in bulk and expeditiously to markets across India and Bhutan. Indian Railways already new projects for cross-border linkages by laying a broad - gauge railway track from Kokrajhar in India to Gelephu in Bhutan.

Despite the Covid-19 challenges, freight figures continue to maintain the high momentum in terms of loading in the month of July, 2021 for N. F. Railway. N. F. Railway loaded 7.683 MT during July, 21. This is an increase of about 14.8% in comparison the corresponding period of last year.

Loading of few commodities was increased by a good margin in NFR during July, 2021 in comparison to last year. Dolomite loading increased by 156.1%, container loading increased by 16.7%, cement loading increased by 36.4%, and loading of miscellaneous commodities which includes items like Stone chips, Bamboo, Gypsum, Ballast, Potato etc increased by about 180.2%.

Various steps and initiatives are being taken by NFR to further improve the transportation of freight. This includes opening of new stations for handling inward and outward goods traffic, introduction of 24x7 working in goods sheds, regular virtual meetings with producers and stakeholders for attracting piecemeal loading, initiatives by Business Development Units (BDUs) at Headquarters and Divisional levels and improvement in average speed of freight trains due to continuous monitoring. To further improve speedy release of goods train “Round the Clock” working has also been introduced in Changrabandha station under Alipurduar Division.

As a result of BDUs initiatives, local traders and producers could access larger markets for their products. 24 Kisan Parcel trains were dealt with during July. Moreover, 72 freight carrying rakes were interchanged with Bangladesh during last month. This is an improvement of 20% in comparison to the corresponding period of last year.

It is worth mentioning that a number of concessions/ discounts are also being given in Indian Railways to make Railways Freight movement very attractive.