GUWAHATI: Indian Railways continues to make all out efforts to ensure availability of essential commodities like food grains through its freight services during the nationwide lock down due to COVID-19 pandemic.
In order to ensure the hearth burning in all Indian homes, Indian Railways carried out record food grains loading of 112 rakes equivalent to 3.13 Lakh tonnes on a single day on April 22, 2020, beating previous best food grains loading of 92 rakes (2.57 lakh tonnes) on April 9, 2020, and 89 rakes (2.49 lakh tonnes) April 14, 2020 and again on April 18, 2020.
It may be mentioned here that, from 01.04.2020 to 22.04.2020, the total food grains loaded and transported by Indian Railways was 4.58 million tonnes as compared to 1.82 million tonnes in the corresponding period of last year.
Efforts have been made to ensure that farm products like food grains are picked up on time and also to ensure timely supply during the nationwide lock down. The loading, transportation and unloading of these essential commodities has been in progress in full swing during the lockdown period. Close association is being maintained with Ministry of Agriculture.