CHANDIGARH: The Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw inaugurated the country’s largest automobile cargo terminal, the Gati Shakti Multi-Modal Cargo Terminal at Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar facility in Haryana. The terminal is expected to significantly enhance freight capacity and industrial logistics.It is connected to Patli railway station via a ten-kilometre dedicated rail corridor, a component of the 121.7-kilometre Haryana Orbital Rail Corridor developed by the Haryana Rail Infrastructure Development Corporation (HRIDC). Vaishnaw noted that 108 Multimodal Cargo terminals are now ready and will soon be in service. Spread over 46 acres inside the MSIL Manesar facility, the railway siding features a fully electrified corridor having four full-length tracks for rakes and one track for engine escape, totalling 8.2 kilometres of track length. The siding also includes a two-floor station building, a dedicated pathway for guards and drivers along the tracks, advanced electronic train interlocking and many more. Models manufactured at MSIL’s Gurugram and Manesar facilities will be dispatched to 17 hubs from this railway siding serving 380 cities across India. Port locations of Mundra and Pipavav, used by the company for exports, will also be served. The railway siding will have a dispatch capability of 450,000 vehicles at full capacity. Speaking at the inauguration of the railway siding facility at Maruti Plant in Manesar, Haryana, Ashwini Vaishnav said that to upgrade passenger trains, 16 and 20-coach Main Line EMU trains will be manufactured. Till now, MEMUs were manufactured with 8 or 12 coaches. This project will be implemented in a new factory being started in Kazipet, Telangana. This will provide great relief for short-distance travel. “The number of Amrit Bharat Express trains will soon increase by six more as 50 more trains are under making. Also, Vande Bharat trains are being extended to new routes,’’ he said. Vaishnav said, “NaMo Bharat trains have received a great response from the passengers. Now, 50 new AC passenger trains will be added. Earlier, two trains started between Ahmedabad-Bhuj and Patna-Jaynagar. In total, 150 new passenger trains will come into service. So far, the work of 1300 Amrit Bharat stations has been approved. Out of these, 103 stations have been completed recently, and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated them from Bikaner. Now, 100 more such stations will be completed by December 2025, and 500 more stations will be constructed by 2026.’’ Vaishnaw said that to prevent misuse of bots in Tatkal ticket booking, only KYC-verified passengers will get the facility of online booking from July 1 and an ID will also be mandatory on window booking. He added that India now ranks second in the world in both freight and passenger traffic. “Last year, 7.2 billion passengers travelled by rail and 1617 million tonnes of goods were carried. The freight corridor is now fully operational and about 400 freight trains are running on it every day,’’ he said. Vaishnaw further said that the Bikaner Division has started publishing the chart 24 hours in advance (it was four hours in advance, earlier) as an innovative initiative.It reduced uncertainty among the passengers and facilitated them in making better plans. He said that the Indian Railways has witnessed an unprecedented transformation in the last 11 years under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.He added that before 2014, Railways remained a victim of neglect for decades, with an annual investment of only Rs 25,000 to 30,000 crores. However, now the investment has increased to Rs 2.5 lakh crores, which is accelerating the development of railway infrastructure and facilities. Vaishnaw said, “Legacy problems prevailing in Railways over the years are now being eliminated one by one. Stations, trains, toilets, tracks, cleanliness, technology — every sector has been improved comprehensively. New facilities are being provided to passengers and integrated development is being given priority in collaboration with the industry.’’
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