2,661 tonnes of sugar loaded from Nanjangud to New Mangaluru
The Mysuru division of Southern Railways, which has been attracting newer freight commodities in the last couple of months, has now begun transporting sugar and maize apart from automobiles.
“For the first time, 2,661 tonnes of sugar was loaded from Nanjangud of Mysuru division, South Western Railway to New Mangaluru,” tweeted the Ministry of Railways last week, marking the despatch of the first consignment of the scheduled twelve rakes, totalling more than 31,000 tonnes of sugar from Nanjangud to Mangaluru, between December 8 and 27.
A Gurugram-based exporter has booked sought movement of 12 rakes of 2,650 tonnes each from Nanjangud to Mangaluru port to transport sugar from Bannari Amman sugar factory near here for export to Indonesia and Bangladesh.
Though sugar is transported by road in trucks usually and by railway freight to Tuticorin occasionally, it was for the first time that the commodity had been loaded on the railways to Mangaluru, said sources in the Railways.
Apart from sugar, the Mysuru division of South Western Railways has also been transporting huge quantities of maize from Ranibennur and Haveri to parts of West Bengal and Bihar, besides Kerala and Tamil Nadu, mostly to meet the requirement of poultry feed.
Before sugar and maize, automobile manufacturers too had begun transporting the vehicles after the Railways modified its coaches to provide New Modified Goods rakes to facilitate transport of two-wheelers from Nanjangud to different parts of the country.
Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, Mysuru Division, South Western Railways, Manjunath Kanamadi said iron ore and petroleum products continued to be the mainstay of railways freight from the division while sugar and maize were “seasonal”.
When asked if the recent rise in prices of fuel had forced the transporters to consider railways over road transport, Mr Kanamadi said businesses will consider railways when the goods are in bulk and the distance is long. For, transportation by train requires businesses to bear the additional expenditure of loading and unloading from trucks at the departure station as well as terminating station.
Mysuru division had recorded the highest monthly turnover of ₹71.52 crore during October 2021 when freight operations witnessed a spurt after the lockdown by loading more than 8 lakh tonnes of goods during the month. However, November 2021 saw a marginal slump with about 7.6 lakh tonnes being loaded yielding a revenue of ₹60.02 crore.
The slowdown was attributed to torrential rains lashing the region. Large quantities of onion, which was to be transported to different destinations from Mysuru division, too perished in the rains, sources added.
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