First freight train carrying 1k bikes chugs out of Mysuru

Mysuru: After its success with the weekly Kisan Rail to help farmers with timely transportation of their perishable goods from Mysuru, Mandya, Hassan and other districts to other regions in the country, South Western Railways Mysuru division on Saturday started to operate similar weekly freight trains to transport automobiles goods from the region.
This new move aims at helping local industrialists to transport their automobile and industrial goods.
On Saturday, the first freight train carrying 1,000 TVS two-wheelers in new modified goods (NMG) rake loaded from the city’s Kadakola and chugged off towards Changsari near Guwahati, which is about 3,000 km from Mysuru. It will reach its destination within 55 hours.
Sources in Mysuru railways told STOI, the division railway resumed this operation after a gap of five years. All these years, automobile goods were transported by road from Mysuru and they reached their destination after nearly a fortnight .
Transporting automobile goods and vehicles in freight trains also reduces carbon emissions. This mode cuts down the time taken to deliver its newly built vehicles from its plants to dealers in various cities across the country.
Business Development Unit, which oversees the transportation of automobiles in freight trains, plans to operate weekly freight trains depending upon orders from Mysuru. It has received another order from TVS Company for transportation of another 1,000 two wheelers from its Kadakola plant till Howrah in West Bengal next week.
"NMG rakes are modified coaches to facilitate the easy movement of automobiles. One full NMG rake has 25 coaches. On an average one coach can carry 40 two-wheelers thus carrying around 1,000 vehicles in one move" said Priya Shetty, divisional commercial manager and senior public relations officer, SWM.
Apart from agriculture commodities transportation on Kisan Rail also transporte iron ore towards, Goa and Maharashtra.
SWR launches mobile app
The commercial department of Mysore division SWR has launched a mobile application named ‘SWIFT’ known as Single Window for Integrated Freight Transportation for the benefit of customers.This app will be a one-stop destination to access requisite details for customers. It helps customers trace the contact number of parcel staff, special trains running, and types of wagons for different types of commodities and interact with officials. It can be downloaded from Play Store.