Jaipur, June 11: To provide relief to drought affected regions of Rajasthan, the North-West railway zone is transporting over 1.25 crores litres of drinking water and 183400 tonnes of foodgrains every day free of cost, a top railway official has said here today. For water transportation, metre and broad gauge rakes were pressed into action at Bhagat-ki-Kothi, Jawai dam (Jodhpur district), and Nasirabad since October last without any delay and discrepancy, its general manager R M Agarwal told reporters.
Fodder from Punjab, Haryana and Maharashtra was also being transported every day in drought affected districts of western Rajasthan, he said.
On the request of the Gehlot government, the NW railways was considering continuing the transportation till July end, Agarwal said adding, no passenger train was affected due to running of these rakes.
Denying any rift between the FCI and railways on foodgrain transportation, he said, it was FCI that did not make arrangements for unloading the rakes and there was a delay on tracks by 10-12 hours.
Now the railway had extended unloading facilities to FCI and the work was smoothly being done at Udaipur and Rana Pratap, he added.
When asked to divulge the cost of transportation the railway was affording daily, the GM said it was for a social cause and it should not be tagged with money.
Bureau Report