South Central Railway (SCR) under the mission “Join Hands for Kerala” to reach out to the people of the flood-affected State on a war footing has collected up to 60 tonnes of relief material and dispatched them to district magistrates in the affected areas. The consignment comprised staple food items like para-boiled rice, wheat flour, pulses, baby food, sugar, milk powder, biscuits, oil, salt, tea powder, spices, fruit juices, tetra milk, vegetables etc. Other items which formed the bulk of relief material sent include medicines, soaps, blankets, bedsheets, towels, pillows, floor mats, clothes, cooking utensils, mosquito coils, candles, toothbrushes. An official spokesperson informed that parcel vans have been attached by various Kerala-bound trains exclusively to transport the relief material from Secunderabad, Vijayawada and Guntakal to destinations in Kerala.
Three luggage-cum-brake van coaches and a special parcel van was attached to transport 24 tonnes of relief material from Vijayawada, while another parcel van has been run from Tirupati to transport 16 tonnes of the material.
Implementation team
General Manager Vinod Kumar Yadav set up a comprehensive implementing machinery all over the zone and has nominated Additional G.M. John Thomas to co-ordinate the entire relief activity and liaise with the Kerala Government.
Teams were formed at each departmental and divisional levels to pool the required relief material while with the SCR Women’s Welfare Organization and trade unions also joining the massive reach out exercise, he informed.