Indian Railways Bengaluru Division finds new revenue stream! Loading of tractors as well as other farm equipment is the new business stream for the Bengaluru Division of Indian Railways’ South Western Railway zone. Recently, the Bengaluru Division loaded two NMG rakes. The first rake of as many as 410 Tillers, 18 number of Tractors, and other 1,396 equipment were sent to Changsari in Assam, while the second rake of 175 number of Tractors was sent to Kankaria near Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat. According to a press release issued by the South Western Railway zone, this business was developed during the last two months due to continuous follow up with manufacturers, and thereby, proactively creating automobile loading facilities at two railway stations.
According to South Western Railways, during June, the zone has already loaded 15 NMG rakes (each rake consisting of 25 coaches, carrying a total of 175 tractors). The zonal railways expect to loads two more rakes during this month of June. The zone’s previous best performance was six NMG rakes in a month, South Western Railways stated.
During the lockdown period in April, the Bengaluru Division had loaded tractors from Doddaballapur railway station for around 2,158 Km distance to Phulera. A couple of days ago, the first rake of SUV took the rail route from Penukonda to Delhi. Earlier this month, the national transporter had said that 200 SUVs of KIA motors were loaded in two rakes from Penukonda in Bangalore Division and were transported to the national capital.
According to South Western Railways, being a high-end product, the demand for SUV gets impacted during any downturn like the COVID-19 lockdown. However, the factory of KIA Motors, located at Anantapur District had already started the production as well as dispatched SUVs to the national capital. On 31 May 2020, one NMG rake of SUVs was loaded by KIA Motors from Penukonda. The booking of the consignment was from Penukonda to Farkhanagar, near the national capital. The first rake of 25 NMGs carried about 100 SELTOS SUVs. Following the first rake, the second rake of SUVs SELTOS was loaded from Penukonda.