Indian Railways reaches another milestone, operates 'SheshNaag' - the longest train ever

The Indian Railways on Thursday broke another recordby operating 'SheshNaag', a 2.8 Km long train amalgamating 4 empty BOXN rakes, powered by 4 sets of electric locomotives.

Image: Video Grab

NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways on Thursday (July 2, 2020) broke another record by operating 'SheshNaag', a 2.8 km-long train amalgamating four empty BOXN rakes, powered by four sets of electric locomotives. 

It may be noted that 'SheshNaag' is the longest train ever to be operated by the Indian Railways. The formation was made by joining four empty BOXN rakes and is powered by four sets of electric locomotives. It has nine engines and four guards van.

The 251-wagon long-haul goods train named ‘SheshNaag’ was operated by the South East Central Railway (SECR), Nagpur Division of the Indian Railways. 

The Ministry of Railways took to Twitter on July 2 to share a video clip of the "longest train ever to run on Indian Railways".

Indian Railways breaks another record. Operates 'SheshNaag', a 2.8 Km long train amalgamating 4 empty BOXN rakes, powered by 4 sets of electric locomotives

'SheshNaag' is the longest train ever to run on Indian Railways. pic.twitter.com/t3fKKVJSkJ

— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) July 2, 2020

Two days ago, on June 30, the Railway Ministry had run a 177-coach freight train named ‘Super Anaconda’.

Taking a big leap in reducing the transit time of freight trains, Bilaspur division of SECR broke yet another frontier by joining & running 3 loaded trains (more than 15000 tonnes) in 'Anaconda' formation through Bilaspur & Chakradharpur divisions. pic.twitter.com/5lZlQHDpkI — Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) June 30, 2020

Importantly, the Indian Railways reached this feat on a day when it achieved 100 percent punctuality for the first time ever.

The Indian Railways said in a release that on Thursday (July 2, 2020), it achieved 100 percent punctuality of trains for the first time in history as 201 trains that that run on this day reached the destination on time. 

Prior to this India Railways has achieved 99.54 percent punctuality of trains on June 23 with the delay of only one train making it the second-best rate after today.

The Indian Railway Ministry said, ''First time ever in the history of Indian Railways, 100% punctuality of trains achieved with all trains on time. Previous best was 99.54% on 23.06.2020 with one train getting delayed.''

Expressing his happiness on the milestone achieved by the Indian Railways, Union Minister Piyush Goyal Tweeted, ''Trains in the Fast Lane: Enhancing services to unprecedented levels, Indian Railways made history on 1st July 2020 by achieving 100% punctuality rate.''

It is to be noted that during the ongoing lockdown, Indian Railways is running only special trains with a restricted capacity to ferry passengers stranded or those travelling out of necessity. These are specific routes across the country devised to help movement in the current situation.