Railways to introduce semi high-speed goods train by year-end

The Indian Railways is building the country’s first semi high-speed goods train called ‘Gatishakti’ to be introduced in the freight sector, Railway officials announced on Friday.

They said that the first rake of this train is being built on the platform of Vande Bharat Express and will be ready by the end of this year.

The construction of the two rakes of ‘Gatishakti’ train has already started at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) of the Railways in Chennai. The Railway Board has set a target of manufacturing 25 such goods trains in the future.

Giving this information to reporters, ICF General Manager Atul Agarwal said that the first rake of ‘Gatishakti’ train will start running in December 2022 and the second rake is expected to join in a few days.

He further said the decision to build more such rakes will depend upon the kind of business both the rakes are able to get in the freight market.

He further informed that the semi high-speed goods train will be a 16 coach non air-conditioned train and will contain LD6 and LD9 class containers, which are used for carrying cargo in aircraft. Two coaches will have air-conditioned containers to carry milk products, fish, fruits, vegetables etc. Electricity connection for them will be provided from the coach. The rest of the coaches will have rollers for moving the container. The coach will have two wide doors for loading and unloading the containers.

Another ICF official said that the focus of ‘Gatishakti’ goods train will be mainly on transportation of parcels, courier, e-commerce goods and food items. He further said that they expect the semi high-speed goods trains to become a very attractive option for cheap and superfast freight transportation.