PIB News Update:On the 3rd day of the nation-wide complete lock down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Indian Railways continued making all efforts to ensure availability of essential commodities through its freight services. During the situation of lockdown in all the States, Indian Railways staff deployed at various good sheds, stations and control offices continued working on 24/7 basis to ensure that the supply of essential items for the nation does not get affected.
Yesterday on 27th March 2020, 34648 wagons carried supplies to keep the supply chains functional. Of these, 23682 wagons of essential commodities were ferried by Indian Railways in 425 rakes to ensure that the supply chains keep functioning. The total number of wagons carrying essential commodities during the past five days thus reached approximately 1.25 lacs.
Out of the total 23682 wagons which were loaded for essential commodities, there were 1576 wagons of foodgrains, 42 wagons of fruits and vegetables, 42 wagons of sugar, 42 wagons of salt, 20488 wagons of coal, and 1492 wagons of petroleum products.
It may be noted that MHA has lifted restrictions on movement of goods to facilitate easy loading and unloading at the various locations across the nation.This has removed ground level discretions in permissions regarding loading and unloading of goods of various kinds at Terminals spread across India.Special efforts are being made by Indian Railways to ferry these goods to maintain the supply chain in the lock down period.