New Delhi, Aug 10 (IANS): The Indian Railways on Tuesday said that it has transported over 10 crore litres of milk from Andhra Pradesh to Delhi since March last year.

The Railway Ministry, in a statement, said that the milk was transported on "Doodh Duronto" special trains from Andhra Pradesh's Renigunta to Delhi. It said that right from the date of introduction of the service on March 26 last year, these special trains were operated by South Central Railway (SCR) on an uninterrupted basis and till date, 2,502 milk tankers were transported through 443 trips.

"Transportation of milk by rail from Renigunta to New Delhi has been very important and crucial to meet the essential needs of the nation," it said.

Prior to Covid-19, milk tankers were being attached to weekly superfast trains to cater to the milk needs of the people in New Delhi and surrounding regions. It said that when nationwide lockdown was implemented in the country, the SCR started unique concept of operating "Doodh Duronto" special trains by exclusively attaching milk tankers.

Mail express trains are being used for the purpose, covering the distance of 2,300 kms from Renigunta to Hazrat Nizamuddin station in 30 hours.

The Railways said that Doodh Duronto specials are run normally with six milk tankers, each having a capacity of 40,000 litres, totalling 2.40 lakh litres of milk in a train.

Officials of the Guntakal Division are in constant touch with the freight customers who are offering the loading of milk and have been attending to their requirements so that there is no hindrance in operation of the trains, it added.

Since introduction of this novel initiative, these trains have been operated continuously during peak Covid times and is also being continued further to balance the supply chain of the essential commodities, it added.