Northeast Frontier Railway pushes containerised tea transport by rail

DIMAPUR — The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) on Wednesday held a stakeholder meeting with tea industry representatives, logistics operators, exporters and producers to promote containerised movement of tea through rail transport.

The meeting, held at the NFR headquarters in Maligaon, focused on improving rail-based logistics for tea transportation from the Northeast. Senior railway officials and stakeholders discussed measures to strengthen rail connectivity, operational coordination and container handling facilities to encourage greater movement of tea consignments by rail.

According to the NFR, Assam produces nearly 160 million kg of export-oriented tea annually, and the initiative is aimed at supporting the sector with cost-effective and reliable transportation services. It stated that containerised rail movement offers advantages such as faster transit, reduced handling loss and environmentally sustainable transport.

The railway zone also highlighted its freight performance during the 2025–26 financial year, reporting total freight loading of 11.4 million tonnes, marking a 6% increase over the previous year. Freight unloading operations also increased from 12,346 rakes in FY 2024–25 to 13,034 rakes in FY 2025–26.

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As part of efforts to strengthen freight logistics infrastructure in the region, the NFR said modern freight terminals and multimodal cargo handling facilities are being developed across the Northeast. Among them is the upcoming freight terminal at Molvom in Nagaland, alongside another at Sairang in Mizoram.

The NFR stated that the new facilities, along with Gati Shakti Cargo Terminals being developed across the zone, are expected to improve cargo aggregation, container handling and first-mile and last-mile connectivity, creating greater opportunities for industries such as tea producers and exporters to shift towards rail transportation.