MUMBAI: Indian Railways on Friday operated its first double-stack long-haul container train from Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT), carrying 360 TEUs over around 422km to CONCOR’s GCT terminal at Varnama in Vadodara division. The train departed JNPT at 7pm on August 21.The long-haul formation comprised two double-stack rakes coupled together. The leading rake, hauled by locomotive 60311, carried 45+1 containers and had a tonnage of 1,817 tonnes, while the trailing rake, hauled by locomotive 24690, carried 45+1 containers with a tonnage of 2,105 tonnes. Together, the formation carried 360 TEUs in a single movement.The operation is expected to improve container evacuation from JNPT by allowing a larger volume of freight to be transported in a single train. This can help reduce the number of train movements required for the same freight volume, easing pressure on terminal infrastructure and improving utilisation of available railway route capacity.Railway officials said long-haul double-stack operations could also reduce container dwell time at ports and terminals and help lower the requirement for locomotives and container flat wagons. Faster evacuation of containers could consequently contribute to reducing overall freight transit time and transportation costs.The electrically hauled train also underlines the railways’ push for greener freight movement. A single long-haul container train can carry cargo that would otherwise require a large number of trucks, reducing dependence on diesel-powered road transport, road congestion and vehicular emissions.The movement is particularly significant for JNPT, one of the country’s major container gateways, as higher-capacity rail evacuation can help move larger volumes of imported and exported containers from the port to inland destinations more efficiently.
