Indian Railways and DFCCIL scale up long haul operation to overcome crew shortage

NEW DELHI : Eight freight trains were paired and operated as four trains for the first time in a single day to achieve time and crew optimisation, officials said. “Two trains each having 58 wagons along with engines were joined to make one train formation. Four such formations were made using eight freight trains and operated in a single day on Monday. We call it a long haul operation,” said Shashi Kant Tripathi, Chief Public Relations Officer, North Central Railway.

“Most importantly, we deployed only one train crew (a loco pilot, an assistant loco pilot and a guard) to run the joint formation thus four crew team successfully operated these four pair of trains on the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) between Dadri and Deen Dayal Upadhyay station,” he added.

Tripathi added that earlier they had tried similar experiments but one or two such formations were operated in a day, however, this time, the Prayagraj division decided to scale up this exercise on an experimental basis.

Railway officials said that three officials — Divisional Railway Manager Himanshu Badoni, Senior Divisional Operation Manager SK Shukla and Deputy Chief Transportation Manager of Tundla Amit Sudarshan — should get full credit for the initiative, It will prove to be a turning point in the rail freight operation on the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation India Limited (DFCCIL), they said.

“There is a shortage of crew in the Indian Railway and this kind of experiment helps tackle this issue. Path optimisation is another big advantage of this experiment. In the coming days, we want to increase this exercise so that our freight operations achieve maximum benefits,” a railway official said.

Highlighting its impact on passenger services, a spokesperson from the DFCCIL said that if more freight trains are diverted and run on the freight corridors, it will have a huge benefit on the passenger services.

“It decongests the railway tracks meant for passenger trains enhancing safety as well punctuality. Since Kumbh Mela is scheduled in January next year which will lead to huge increase in passenger flow from other parts of the country towards Prayagraj division, the long haul freight operation will turn out to be a boon for Indian Railways,” the spokesperson said.