Railways to transport water for drought-affected Latur

New Delhi: Railways will transport water to the drought-affected Latur district in Maharashtra in the summer and the public transporter is keeping two goods trains ready for the purpose.

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has directed the concerned officials to make necessary arrangements for it, a senior railway official said today.

Two goods trains will be deployed in Latur during the summer season and the trips of the trains will be arranged as per the requirement.

The carrying capacity of water is around 55,000 litres per wagon.

According to the official, railways has made arrangement for two goods trains consisting of 50 tanker like wagons each (BTPN wagons) for the purpose of loading and transporting water in the drought-affected areas of Latur district on the request from Maharashtra government.

Accordingly the Kota workshop railways will undertake steam cleaning of wagons for the purpose of loading drinking water.

The two goods trains will be deployed in Pandharpur-Latur section of Solapur division for loading water. The first goods train consisting of 50 wagons will be ready for water loading after steam cleaning from Kota workshop on April 8.

The second goods train consisting of 50 wagons after steam-cleaning, is expected to be ready for water loading around April 15.

The official said railways has decided to transport water in the drought affected areas to meet the water crisis.

Earlier, on a demand from Rajasthan government, many goods trains were deployed to transport water from Nasirabad to Bhilwada in Ajmer Division from January 2016 onwards which will continue up to the summer season.