The Indian Railways is in talks with the government over the transportation of the vaccine through its refrigerated wagons, however, no final decision has been taken on the same, officials said on Monday. A senior railway official said there are numerous "technical issues" with implications as to the temperature required for the transportation of the vaccine and others. "And these points are being discussed. So once the decision is taken, we will update everyone," the official added.
On Friday, Railway Board Chairman and CEO V.K.Yadav had said "We are in talks with the government and we are discussing the possibilities", to a question over the transportation of Covid vaccines in railways' refrigerated vans. He further said that as of now nothing has been decided. "We are in continuous touch with several ministries for the transportation of Covid vaccines," Yadav had said.
The national transporter operates several refrigerated vans for the transportation of perishable cargo like vegetables, fruits, dairy products, fish and meat attached in several of its mail or express trains. The vans can carry 5 tonnes of frozen items and an additional capacity of 12 tonnes for perishable cargo like fruit and vegetables.
The Railways has developed a new design of refrigerated parcel vans with the carrying capacity of 17 tonnes for the transportation of highly perishable parcel traffic. It was procured through Rail Coach Factory Kapurthala. Presently, railways have nine such refrigerated vans and they can be booked on a round-trip basis.
According to railways, the Kisan Rail train with frozen containers is expected to build a seamless national cold supply chain for perishables, inclusive of fish, meat and milk. Having 98 Reefer (Ventilated Insulated) rail containers with a carrying capacity of 12 tonnes per container which were procured through CONCOR for movement of fruits and vegetables to different parts of the country.
The temperature-controlled perishable cargo centres were approved at Ghazipur Ghat in Uttar Pradesh, New Azadpur in New Delhi, and Raja ka Talab again in UP, as a pilot project under the Kisan Vision Project by CONCOR through a CSR initiative while another project is under construction at Lasalgaon in Maharashtra's Nasik.
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The railways have also approved the Central Railside Warehousing Corporation (CRWC) to develop temperature-controlled storages at Fatuha and Mancheswar. The cold storage facility has also been developed at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh.
The Fresh and Healthy Enterprise Ltd (FHEL) has been redeveloped as the Agriculture Logistic Centre at Rai in Haryana's Sonepat, which is CONCOR's 100 per cent owned subsidiary, developed on land measuring 16.40 acres.