Railways to ferry 100 tonnes of tomato from K’taka to Bihar

Bengaluru, Dec 5 : In an effort to maximise freight earnings in Covid times, the South Western Railway (SWR) would soon ferry 100 tonnes of tomato from Kolar in Karnataka to Danapur near Patna in Bihar, an official said on Saturday.
“About 100 tonnes of tomato will be ferried from the Kolar station to the Danapur junction in 10 rakes, comprising 10 closed wagons of 1-tonne capacity each,” SWR’s Bengaluru division manager Ashok Kumar Verma told IANS here.
As Kolar district is a major producer of tomatoes, the zonal division is working with the farmers and their APMC (Agriculture Producers Marketing Committee) to get the vegetable delivered at the station for loading in the wagons.
“We plan to run 1 rake of 10 wagons to transport 10 tonnes of raw tomato a day from Kolar to Danapur, covering the distance (over 2,000 km) in about 36-40 hours,” said Verma.
The zonal railway estimates to earn Rs 5.76 lakh per rake as additional revenue.
With regular passenger train services largely remaining suspended since March 25 due to Covid-induced lockdown and restrictions to contain the pandemic, the Railways is making optimal use of the free tracks by operating more goods and parcel trains across the country.