As of March 16, Doodh Duronto specials had transported over 7 crore litres of milk from Renigunta in Andhra Pradesh to New Delhi in the current financial year 2020-21, a new record in milk transportation since the operation began in 2011-2012.
Milk tankers were originally linked to the daily superfast train by the South Central Railway. Since then, milk has been transported on a daily basis, with about 2 to 3 crore litres transported per financial year. 4.4 Crore litres were shipped in 2019-20.
Milk transportation has been a tough job for the region since the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown in March 2020, when all commuter trains came to a halt.
From March 26, 2020, the zone began operating special trains named Doodh Duronto, which were initially operated on alternating days. Following that, due to increased demand, these specials were made available every day starting July 15, 2020, and are still available today.
These Doodh Duronto specials run on the same timetable as Mail express trains, covering the 2,300 km distance between Renigunta and H. Nizamuddin in 30 hours. These contain six 40,000-liter milk tankers, for a total of 2.40 lakh litres. In the current financial year, about 296 trips of Doodh Duronto special trains have been run, with 1,753 milk tankers carrying 7 crore litres of milk.
