Railway Ministry declines Defence Ministry's plea to reduce military special train size, charges

The Railway Ministry has turned down the Defence Ministry's plea to reduce the minimum size of military special trains from 30 to 20 wagons. Citing operational constraints, Railways stated that its standard costing is based on 30 wagons, and a reduction wouldn't proportionally cut costs. The Defence Ministry had requested this change along with a waiver in freight charges, but the Railway Board deemed further relaxation operationally infeasible.