Now, a flood of milk trains

Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda has announced that full-fledged trains will be run in collaboration with Amul and the National Dairy Development Board to carry milk and milk products.

Neither the transporting of liquid milk in rail tankers nor the transportation of dairy products in rail wagons is a new idea. In the past too, railway ministers have declared concessions for transportation of milk, principally because it is a highly perishable commodity.

The concept of moving milk on rails was initiated even before the start of Operation Flood in 1970. New Zealand’s dairy board was one of the organisations that had gifted rail milk tankers for this purpose. But there were very few such rail tankers and transportation of liquid milk was not all that common.

It was during Operation Flood that the NDDB commissioned the services of experts in the Research Design and Standards Organisation of the Railways to indigenously design a carriage that would carry 30,000-40,000 litres of milk on metre gauge and broad gauge lines, respectively.

At the same time, the NDDB also commissioned indigenous manufacturers such as Larsen and Toubro and Mohan Machines to design and manufacture insulated stainless steel tankers of the required capacity. These ultimately helped realise the dream of setting up the National Milk Grid (NMG).

The carriage and tanker were so designed as to prevent the milk from churning while in motion, and maintaining its temperature.

The tankers were normally loaded with pasteurised milk cooled to 2 degrees Celsius. At the end of the 40-hour journey from Anand to Calcutta (now Kolkata), the temperature of the milk would be 4 degrees Celsius.

It was this efficiency that helped move milk from surplus areas like Gujarat to deficit areas like Delhi and Kolkata, where Mother Dairy then took the milk to consumers. As milk procurement picked up, the movement from hinterland feeder and feeder-balancing dairies included other large metros such as Bangalore, Madras (now Chennai) and Bombay (Mumbai).

Supplying centres such as Anand and Mehsana (in Gujarat), some receiving centres such as Madhavaram (in Madras) and dairies such as the Delhi Milk Scheme had excellent railway siding facilities that eased the incantation and decantation of milk.

Thus, the NMG successfully linked milk producers in far-flung villages of various states and consumers in the metros. The NMG became the most significant tool of Operation Flood; it has made India the number one milk producer in the world.

Gowda’s announcement further boosts the NMG. From carrying milk in a few tankers, India is now mature enough to run full-fledged milk trains.

They will comprise tankers carrying liquid milk, wagons carrying dry dairy products, and specially designed refrigerated wagons to carry ice cream, butter, cheese, paneer , dahi , chhachh and other dairy products that need to be kept cool for longer distances and periods.

These trains will run from Amul’s supply stations in Anand to various destinations across India.

Imagine a fleet of trucks carrying dairy products from Anand to the Northeastern States, taking as many as 10 days to reach their destination. Apart from the delay, the products run the risk of getting damaged. Voluminous supplies that would take 100 trucks to carry will now be transported by one train.

A milk train from Anand can reach Guwahati, Assam, in just two days; it can carry supplies to last a week. Similar dedicated trains can be run to other major supply depots as Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh), Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Chennai and Bangalore. The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation might as well draw a calendar to despatch two trains daily from Anand.

As a cooperative dairy of international repute, Amul stands to gain significantly from milk trains; the prospect of supplying to the “seven sister states of the Northeast” is particularly encouraging.

The important issue is whether any other private sector dairy organisation seeks this facility and whether the Railways will extend the facility to them too.

The writer is an international animal husbandry and dairying consultant

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