The Railways conducted a test run of its longest freight train, Super Vasuki, with 295 loaded wagons carrying over 27,000 tonnes of coal, on August 15, as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations.
The 3.5-km-long freight train covered the distance of about 267 km between Korba in Chhattisgarh and Rajnandgaon in Nagpur, and was run by the South East Central Railway (SECR).
This is the longest and heaviest freight train ever run by the Railways, the national transporter said, adding that the train takes about four minutes to cross a station.
The amount of coal carried by Super Vasuki is enough to fire 3,000 MW of power plant for one full day, officials said. This is three times the capacity of existing railway rakes (90 cars with 100 tonnes in each) that carry about 9,000 tonnes of coal in one journey.
The train was formed by combining five rakes of goods trains as one unit.
