Indian Railways has decided to run several long distance ‘Parcel Cargo Express Special Trains’ (PCET) in a time-bound manner to provide seamless transportation facilities for movement of goods to different parts of the country. These special trains will help in delivering items of daily needs during the lockdown period necessitated due to the deadly Coronavirus outbreak in India.
These special trains will be run between Yeshwantpur to Hazrat Nizamuddin and Bandra Terminus to Ludhiana.
To meet the requirements of key infrastructure sectors during the nationwide lock down due to COVID-19, Indian Railways has been fulfilling its commitment to ensure availability of important raw material and fuel through its freight services.
“During the situation of lockdown, Indian Railways staff deployed at various good sheds, stations and control offices continued working with full devotion to ensure that the supply of essential items for these critical sectors does not get affected. Due to relentless operations of Railways, all power plants and petroleum depots have proper stock with them despite lockdown,” the railway said in a statement.
It said that during last 12 days from 23rd March to 3rd April 2020, Railways loaded and carried 2,50,020 wagons of coal, and 17742 wagons of petroleum products (One wagon contains 58-60 ton consignment). Details are as follows:
To monitor the uninterrupted movement of materials fuelling the power, transport and infrastructure sectors and other essential commodities over Indian Railways, an emergency freight control centre is working in the Ministry of Railways. Freight movement is being closely monitored by officials at very senior level,” it said.
Indian Railways along with Ministry of Home affairs is keeping in touch with state Governments to sort out any such operational issue if they arise.
Meanwhile, all divisions and workshops of Northern Railways are working 24x7 to fight against COVID-19. In its continuation efforts to fight against the Coronavirus, it has manufactured 1,673 liters of hand sanitizer, 9,036 face masks, 241coverall besides converting 174 coaches into isolation wards.