Indian Railways has launched the longest freight train in the country’s history named ‘Rudrastra’. Stretching nearly 4.5 kilometres, the train is created by joining six standard rakes into a single formation. It consists of 354 wagons and is driven by seven locomotives.
What is ‘Rudrastra’ ?
Why In News
- Indian Railways has launched the longest freight train in the country’s history named ‘Rudrastra’. Stretching nearly 4.5 kilometres, the train is created by joining six standard rakes into a single formation. It consists of 354 wagons and is driven by seven locomotives.
‘Rudrastra’ – India’s Longest Freight Train
- In the national transporter successfully operated “Rudrastra,” a massive freight train created by coupling six empty BOXN rakes. The train departed from Ganjkhwaja station in the DDU Division, making it the longest freight train ever run by Indian Railways.
- According to an ECR statement: “Rudrastra covered a distance of 200 km from Ganjkhwaja station in Uttar Pradesh to Garhwa Road station in Jharkhand in 05.00 hours at an average speed of 40 km. It was prepared by joining six empty boxon rakes, which include a total of 354 wagons. 7 engines were installed to run this goods train. The ‘Rudrastra’ goods train formed by joining all the six rakes from Ganjkhwaja station was dispatched to Garhwa Road at 2:20 pm.”
Cuts Costs And Speeds Up Freight Movement
- Railway officials said that if the six rakes had been run separately, it would have required repeating crew arrangements, scheduling and routing for each one. By combining them into a single train named ‘Rudrastra,’ the Railways can cut down on time, manpower and operational expenses. This approach also speeds up freight movement and makes it more cost-effective, giving a significant boost to India’s logistics sector.
- The journey began on the Dedicated Freight Corridor from Ganjkhwaja to Sonnagar in the DDU division and continued on Indian Railways’ regular track toward Garhwa Road.
- Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw shared a video of the train on X (formerly Twitter) with the caption, “‘Rudrastra’ – Bharat’s longest freight train (4.5 km long).” Highlighting its significance, the zonal railway said the successful operation of “Rudrastra” reflects “better working capacity, coordination between departments and good management of DDU division.”
- It added: “This will increase both the speed and capacity of freight transportation. If these goods trains were run separately, then six different routes and crews would have to be arranged for all of them. Running together as Rudrastra will save time significantly and will also provide space for running more trains.”
- The 354-wagon ‘Rudrastra’ is not only the longest freight train operated by Indian Railways but also the largest in Asia, PTI quoted a railway official as saying. Each wagon was loaded with 72 tonnes of goods during the journey. The train was prepared in a way that two engines were attached in front and one with each rack after every 59 bogeys. A total of seven engines were used to steer the 345 wagons.
Conclusion
- “This will increase both the speed and capacity of freight transportation. If these goods trains were run separately, then six different routes and crews would have to be arranged for all of them. Running together as Rudrastra will save time significantly and will also provide space for running more trains,” it added.
