The service boosts efficiency, cutting costs, transit time, pollution, and congestion.
According to officials on Sunday, the Railway Board has been asked by the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited to supply more waggons appropriate for its truck-on-train service.
Trucks and milk tankers can be transported on specially built waggons thanks to the truck-on-train (ToT) service. It operates between Palanpur, Gujarat, and Rewari, Haryana, and was introduced on the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor on September 18, 2023.
Among other advantages, the service drastically lowers air pollution, traffic congestion, and transit costs and times.
According to officials, the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) requested additional waggons in a letter to the Railway Board over a year after the launch in order to capitalise on its expanding economic potential. The request has been pursued ever since. The Railway Board hasn’t yet fulfilled it, though.
According to industry insiders, a specifically constructed Flat Multi-Purpose (FMP) waggon is needed for the ToT service. It is already being manufactured, and deliveries are anticipated to start early next year.
For ToT services, we currently use Bogie Rail Waggon. FMP is multipurpose and appropriate for the DFCCIL business model, even though it is also a flat waggon, according to a Board representative.
Currently, the ToT service loads thirty trucks onto a goods train in Palanpur each day, which then travels the 630 km to Rewari along the corridor in about twelve hours.
The empty trucks are loaded back onto the train to go back to the starting location after the goods are delivered.
Twenty-five of the thirty vehicles are milk tankers that go by road from an Amul dairy in Banas to the loading location in Palanpur. The other five trucks transport various goods, including diesel oil, machinery, and vegetables, according to a DFCCIL representative.
“We add a separate coach to the goods train so that drivers can take a 12-hour break while travelling. The 25 tankers are transported by road to Prithala in Faridabad, where Amul has another dairy to package milk and other dairy products, after being unloaded at Rewari, he continued.
The same tankers used to travel from the Banas dairy to Prithala in 30 hours, according to officials. Nonetheless, the freight corridor has cut the journey time by roughly 20 hours, guaranteeing that the milk’s quality is maintained at the time of loading.
Officials referred to the initiative as a “game-changer” for the logistics industry, stating that although railways frequently deal with issues like limited first- and last-mile connectivity, minimum consignment requirements, and customer concerns about high-value freight, the ToT model provides an instant solution to these problems.
“This intermodal approach not only saves transit time but also alleviates road congestion, enhances drivers’ quality of life by ensuring adequate rest, and most importantly, reduces carbon emissions,” they stated.
“We have demands from various industries to operate similar ToT service from other destinations, and we are waiting for FMP waggons,” an official with the DFCCIL stated.
SOURCE – BUSINESS STANDARD
