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Virendra Pandit

Kaithal (Haryana), Oct. 14 India’s first bulk foodgrain rake on Tuesday moved out from Adani Agri Logistics Ltd depot at Sollu Majra village on Dhand-Kaithal road, Haryana. Mr Alok Sinha, Chairman and Managing Director of Food Corporation of India (FCI), flagged the rake off for the Adanis’ field depot at Navi Mumbai.

This specially-designed rake is basically a modern wagon loading system, which allows the wagons to be filled at the rate of 700 tonnes an hour, taking only 2.5 minutes to fill one wagon.

Equipment, like high-level indicators, motorised and pneumatic-discharge gates, belt sway switchers and choke switchers, ensure zero spillage during loading process.

Adani Agri Logistics has designed the top loading, bottom discharge railcars to move the foodgrain in bulk from storage depots to field depots quickly and without spillage. Once filled, these wagons can be sealed perfectly and moisture, insects and rodents cannot enter the wagons, a company spokesman said.

Bulk food rake is a part of foodgrain storage and transportation agreement the company has signed with FCI for 20 years.

Under it, Adani Agri Logistics would provide ultra-modern storage and transportation facilities to the public sector giant. The cost of the project is nearly Rs 600 crore.

Under the agreement, Adani Agri Logistics has established storage and handling infrastructure at more than half a dozen places in various parts of India. It has established two base depots — Kaithal in Haryana and Moga in Punjab — each having a capacity of storing two lakh tonnes of foodgrain.

Apart from this, it has set up field depots at Chennai, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Navi Mumbai and Hooghly. The Navi Mumbai depot has a storage capacity of 50,000 tonnes while all other field depots have capacities of 25,000 tones each.

The objective of the project is to prevent wastage of foodgrain and to preserve its inherent nutritional content. All conventional storage methods had failed to prevent huge losses of foodgrain, but these modern facilities would reduce the wastage during storage and transit to the bare minimum, Mr Sinha said.

More Stories on : Railways | Foodgrains

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