New Delhi, March 23. Indian Railways has successfully designed new wagons with increased load bearing capacity and also upgraded existing wagons to carry more load. Three new wagons (BLCS, BOXNS and BOBSNS) have been designed with 25T axle load, which are having approximately 12% to 17% increase in carrying capacity over equivalent lesser axle load (22/22.9T) wagons, said Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in Lok Sabha today.
Further, in four wagons (BOBSNM1, BOXNHL 25T, BOYEL and BOXNEL) axle load has been increased to 25T resulting in increased carrying capacity of approximately 12% to 14% over earlier lesser axle load (22.82/22.9T) wagons, added Mr Vaishnaw..
New Terminals
In order to boost investment from industry in development of additional terminals for handling rail cargo, a new ‘Gati Shakti Multi-Modal Cargo Terminal (GCT)’ policy has been launched on 15.12.2021 and the target is to commission 100 Gati Shakti Cargo Terminals (GCTs) within the next three financial years, i.e. 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25. These terminals will be constructed on non Railway land, as well as partially or fully on Railway land.
The location of GCTs is being decided on the basis of demand from industry and potential of Cargo Traffic. So far, approximately 71 locations have been provisionally identified for development of GCTs, and some of the locations may be added/removed at a later stage as per the response from concerned parties.
The layout of these terminals will be decided by the concerned parties depending on the expected quantum of traffic, type of consignment and availability of space etc.
This information was given by the Mr. Vaishnaw in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.
