Railways launches time-tabled freight train

The first time-tabled train from Chennai (ICD Tondiarpet) to Delhi (DCT Okhla) was flagged off from Tondiarpet. The service will benefit trade with scheduled transit time at no additional cost being incurred.

The trains will leave on every Saturday at 7 pm from Tondiarpet to reach Okhla at 8 am on Tuesdays covering the distance in 61 hours. In the return direction, trains from Okhla will leave on every Saturday at 1 am to reach Tondiarpet at 3 pm on Mondays covering the distance in 62 hours.

The service will help loading of perishable cargo like vegetables, fruits and pharmaceuticals in specially designed ventilated containers and for parcel traffic. Suresh Prabhu, Railway Minister flagged off the first timetabled container train (called Cargo Express) of Container Corporation of India (Concor) from Delhi to Bengaluru and from Delhi to Chennai on June 15. This initiative was done in coordination with Concor to streamline freight traffic.