Watch: Indian Railways Runs ‘Super Anaconda’ Freight Train

Even as Indian Railways is grappling with the issue of when to resume all its services and how, its South East Central Railway zone has quietly came up with an innovation that created a record of sorts. It attached three rakes of freight trains together to save on precious time and resources. What’s more, it christened the unusually long freight train as 'Super Anaconda'.

And when it took to the tracks, it sure lived up to its expectations, much to the excitement of the public, who were seen gleefully making videos of the rare spectacle on their mobile phones. Interestingly, it is not without a reason why they have named it as ‘Super Anaconda’. When Railways earlier attached two freight trains and successfully operated the service, they fondly nicknamed it as 'Python'. Now that there are three trains clubbed together this time, it is only apt that it assumed the nickname of a ‘Super Anaconda’.

The excitement among the onlookers was clearly palpable when the train was operated between Lajkura and Raurkela in Odisha. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal shared the video of the freight train and tweeted: “Super Anaconda on Track: Taking a major leap in heavy haul operations, Railways has run 177 loaded wagons with three freight trains combined together between Lajkura & Raurkela in Odisha.”

In another tweet with the video of the train, the railway minister said: "Anaconda Gliding on the Track: Boosting heavy Haul Train operations, Railways ran 3 freight trains combined together in the busiest Coal corridor of Kharagpur-Bhadrak section."

Anaconda Gliding on the Track: Boosting heavy Haul Train operations, Railways ran 3 freight trains combined together in the busiest Coal corridor of Kharagpur-Bhadrak section. pic.twitter.com/p87RWDPbMA

— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) July 2, 2020

Not to be left too far behind, even the Ministry of Railways took to its Twitter handle and posted a video of the three trains that were attached and running on the track.

"Taking a big leap in reducing the transit time of freight trains, Bilaspur division of SECR broke yet another frontier by joining and running three loaded trains (more than 15,000 tonnes) in 'Anaconda' formation through Bilaspur and Chakradharpur divisions," the Minsitry of Railways’ tweet read.

At the head of the formation of the Super Anaconda train was a couple of railway locomotives and then its rake followed by another locomotive and the second rake followed finally by the third locomotive and its rake. As a result of the formation, the train got the power of four railway locomotives in one go.

Indian Railways is hoping to save the time required for the movement of freight trains in the Indian Railways network with this formation.

Indian Railways is according highest priority to the movement of freight trains in its network as it was unable to run passenger trains in full capacity due to the spread of coronavirus pandemic.