PM Modi hails Truck-on-Track facility started in Gujarat in his Mann Ki Baat address

Gandhinagar: Prime Minister Narendrabhai Modi in his Mann Ki Baat radio address today highlighted the Truck-on-Track facility started by Indian Railways for transportation of milk from Gujarat’s Banas Dairy to other States. He said this new method takes just half the time compared to the conventional transport apart from other benefits.

The Prime Minister said – ‘My family members, you all know that the Dairy Sector is one of the most important sectors of our country. It has played a very important role in bringing a big change in the lives of our mothers and sisters. Just a few days ago, I came to know about an interesting initiative of Banas Dairy of Gujarat. Banas Dairy is considered to be the biggest Dairy in Asia. On an average, 75 lakh liters of milk is processed here everyday. After this it is also sent to other states. For the timely delivery of milk here to other states, until now the support of tankers or milk trains was availed of. But there were no less challenges in that too. Firstly, loading and unloading used to take a lot of time and often the milk also used to get spoilt. To overcome this problem, Indian Railways did a new experiment. Railways started a Truck-on-Track facility from Palanpur to New Rewari. In this, milk trucks are directly loaded onto the train. That is, the major problem of transportation has been overcome by this. The results of the Truck-on-Track facility have been very satisfactory. Earlier the milk which used to take 30 hours to reach is now reaching in less than half the time. Due to this, whereas the pollution caused by fuel has stopped, the cost of fuel is also saved. Drivers of trucks have also benefited a lot from this, their life has become easier.’

It’s worth noting here that Shankar Chaudhary, the chairman of Banas Dairy had flagged off the inaugural train for this initiative from Karjoda railway station in Palanpur in June this year. A fleet of 25 tankers, each filled with 30 thousand liters of milk, is transported via train under this initiative. In a single journey, approximately 7,50,000 liters of milk is transported from Palanpur to New Rewari in North India.

The Prime Minister also hailed the seedball tree plantation campaign of Banas Dairy.

He said – ‘Friends, with collective efforts today, our dairies are also moving forward with modern thinking. How Banas Dairy has also taken a step forward in the direction of environmental protection is evident through the Seedball tree plantation campaign. Varanasi Milk Union is working on manure management to increase the income of our dairy farmers. The effort of Malabar Milk Union Dairy of Kerala is also very unique. It is engaged in developing Ayurvedic Medicines for the treatment of animal diseases.’

PM further in his address took note of Amanpreet Singh, a dairy farmer in Rajasthan and said – ‘Friends, today there are many people who are diversifying by adopting dairy. You must also know about Amanpreet Singh, who is running a dairy farm in Kota, Rajasthan. Along with dairy, he also focused on Biogas and set up two biogas plants. Due to this, their expenditure on electricity has reduced by about 70 percent. This effort of his is going to inspire dairy farmers across the country. Today many big dairies are focusing on biogas. This type of Community Driven Value addition is very exciting. I am sure that such trends will continue throughout the country.’