Railways starts loading of cars from Igatpuri goods shed

Nashik: The Central Railway has started loading cars from Igatpuri goods shed in Nashik district, which falls in Mumbai division, through the New Modified Goods (NMG) rake that has been specially designed to transport cars in a double-deck system.The railway authorities said that the demand for transportation of cars manufactured in Nashik to be delivered across the country is huge and hence Railways added another goods shed in the region around Nashik."We have a fixed quota of NMG rakes for every division. The Bhusaval division quota is exhausted and hence the Igatpuri goods shed in Mumbai division was established, and the first rake of 25 NMG wagons was loaded with 100 cars to be transported to Nautanwa Goods Terminal in North Eastern Railway," said a senior officer from Railways.Nashik and Deolali, which fall in Bhusawal division, get 18 rakes each month under the established quota.According to a senior officer from logistics, "The railway is not only cheaper in transportation of the vehicles for our destinations, but they are on time and even a safe way of delivering them to the locations we want."The rakes take a maximum of 48 hours to reach any destination across the country, which is not true with road transportation, which is not only costly but unsafe, and even deliveries are bound to be affected due to various issues."Our demand is for more number of rakes and hence we are speaking with Railways for the same," the officer said.According to railway officials, "The demand is very high but the availability of the rakes is an issue. The NMG rakes are being modified out of the old coaches, which are now being replaced by the LHG (Linke Hofmann Busch) coaches. The process of increasing the rakes is on. But since the demand is very high, it is taking time. We hope the situation improves this year."These rakes bound for Nautanwa Goods Terminal in North Eastern Railway are expected to generate revenue of approximately Rs17.16 lakh.