India’s longest freight train: Indian Railways (IR) has set a new record by operating the country’s longest freight train. The initiative, undertaken by the Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Division of the East Central Railway (ECR), is aimed at boosting freight capacity.
Rudrastra – India’s longest freight train
On August 7, the national transporter successfully operated “Rudrastra,” a long freight train formed by combining six empty BOXN rakes, from Ganjkhwaja station of the DDU Division. This freight train is about 4.5 km long, and is the longest freight train of Indian Railways till date.
In a statement, ECR said: “Rudrastra covered a distance of 200 km from Ganjkhwaja station to Garhwa Road station in 05.00 hours at an average speed of 40 km. It was prepared by joining six empty boxon rakes, which include a total of 354 wagons.
7 engines were installed to run this goods train. The ‘Rudrastra’ goods train formed by joining all the six rakes from Ganjkhwaja station was dispatched to Garhwa Road at 2:20 pm.”
This goods train ran on the Dedicated Freight Corridor from Ganjkhwaja to Sonnagar of DDU division and then on the normal track of Indian Railways towards Garhwa Road, the railways said.
Watch Video of Rudrastra freight train
‘Rudrastra’ – Bharat’s longest freight train (4.5 km long) pic.twitter.com/Ufk2MFnpfl
— Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) August 8, 2025
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In a statement, the zonal railway further said that the successful operation of “Rudrastra” is an example of better working capacity, coordination between departments and good management of DDU division.
“This will increase both the speed and capacity of freight transportation. If these goods trains were run separately, then six different routes and crews would have to be arranged for all of them. Running together as Rudrastra will save time significantly and will also provide space for running more trains,” it added.
