New Delhi: During the lockdown in the wake of COVID19, Indian Railways is offering its unhindered services of Parcel Trains for nationwide transportation of essential commodities and other goods required to meet the needs of citizens of the nation. Indian Railways is already transporting essential commodities to different parts of the country through freight trains. While these freight operations of Railways are meeting the needs of bulk transportation of essential goods like foodgrains, edible oil, salt, sugar, coal, cement, milk, vegetables & fruits etc, parcel trains are transporting various items that need to be delivered in comparatively smaller quantities.
So far, Indian Railways has loaded 30 Special Parcel Trains to various destinations all over the country, the details as under:
| S.No. | Origin | Destination | Commodity |
| 1 | Palanpur (Gujarat) | Palwal (Delhi Region) | Milk |
| 2 | Jalgaon | New Guwahati | Miscellaneous Commodities |
| 3 | New Tinsukia | Godhani (Nagpur) | Miscellaneous Commodities |
| 4 | Karambeli (Gujarat) | New Guwahati | General Goods |
| 5 | Dahanu Road (Palghar) | BariBrahman (Jammu) | Dry Grass |
| 6 | Kankaria (Ahmedabad) | Bhimsen (Kanpur) | Milk Products |
| 7 | Palanpur (Gujarat) | Palwal (Delhi Region) | Milk |
| 8 | New Guwahati | Karambeli (Gujarat) | Miscellaneous Products |
| 9 | Palanpur (Gujarat) | Palwal (Delhi Region) | Milk |
| 10 | Renigunta | Nizamuddin | Milk |
| 11 | Palanpur (Gujarat) | Palwal (Delhi Region) | Milk |
| 12 | Palanpur(Gujarat) | Palwal (Delhi Region) | Milk |
| 13 | Salem | Bathinda | Agri Seeds |
| 14 | Moga | Changsari (Guwahati) | Milk Products |
| 15 | Kankaria (Ahmedabad) | Sankrail(Howrah) | Milk Powder |
| 16 | Dahanu Road (Palghar) | BariBrahman (Jammu) | Dry Grass |
| 17 | Bhopal | Gwalior | Fruits |
| 18 | Godhani (Nagpur) | New Tinsukia | Miscellaneous Commodity |
| 19 | Nangal Dam | Changsari (Guwahati) | FMCG Products |
| 20 | Chennai | New Delhi | Miscellaneous Commodity |
| 21 | Yeswanthpur | Howrah | Miscellaneous Commodity |
| 22 | Bandra Terminus | Ludhiana | Medical Goods/Masks |
| 23 | Rewa | Anuppur | Miscellaneous Commodity |
| 24 | Bhopal | Khandwa | Miscellaneous Commodity |
| 25 | Itarsi | Bina | Miscellaneous Commodity |
| 26 | Chennai Egmore | Nagercoil | Medicine and Books |
| 27 | Salem | Hisar | Agri Seeds |
| 28 | New Delhi | Howrah | Miscellaneous Items |
| 29 | Karambeli (Gujarat) | Changsari (Guwahati) | Miscellaneous Items |
| 30 | Palanpur (Gujarat) | Palwar (Delhi Region) | Milk |
Staff Manning these operations have been braving numerous challenges in COVID 19 lock down times to ensure citizens don’t feel shortage of any essential goods.
Encouraged by the outstanding performance of its employees, Zonal Railways have now started running Time tabled Parcel Trains from 31st March, 2020. The Time Tabled Train routes are as under:
| S.No. | Origin | Destination | Frequency/ Route |
| 1 | Bandra Terminus | Ludhiana | Thrice a week (via Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Delhi) |
| 2 | Delhi | Howrah | Twice a week |
| 3 | Yeswanthpur | Howrah | Twice a week (via Chennai), |
| 4 | Secunderabad | Howrah | weekly |
| 5 | Sankrail (Howrah) | Guwahati | weekly |
| 6 | Chennai | Delhi | weekly |
| 7 | Kankariya (Ahmedabad) | Sankrail(Howrah) | weekly |
| 8 | Kalyan | Sankrail (Howrah) | Weekly (via Nasik, Nagpur, Bilaspur) |
| 9 | Kalyan | Changsari | Weekly (via Nasik, Nagpur, Bilaspur) |
| 10 | Karambeli | Changsari | weekly |
In order to ensure speedy delivery and availability of vital goods and commodities across the nation in the times of Lockdown to fight COVID- 19 , Indian Railway is identifying routes for other areas as well. Special Parcel Trains can also be planned as per the demand. Special Parcel trains to connect vital corridors have been identified by Zonal Railways like :
- New Delhi – Guwahati
- New Delhi- Mumbai Central
- New Delhi-Kalyan
- Chandigarh – Jaipur
- Moga – Chhangsari
- Kalyan – New Delhi
- Nashik – New Delhi
- Kalyan – Santraghachi
- Kalyan – Changsari
- Coimbatore-Patel Nagar (Delhi region)
- Patel Nagar (Delhi region) – Coimbatore
- Coimbatore – Rajkot
- Rajkot- Coimbatore
- Coimbatore – Jaipur
- Jaipur- Coimbatore
- Salem – Batinda
- Kankari-Ludhiana
- Sankrail – Bengaluru
- Any other route as per the demand.
Indian Railways has also been running other Parcel trains as per demand of customers during this period – which include:
- a) ‘Milk Specials’ from Palanpur (Gujarat) to Palwal (near Delhi), and from Renigunta (AP) to Delhi
- b) Milk products from Kankariya (Gujarat) to Kanpur (UP) and Sankrail (near Kolkata)
- c) Food products from Moga (Punjab) to Changsari (Assam)
Zonal Railways have been reaching out and coordinating with State Governments to identify the transportation requirement for short distance within the state. On the request of Madhya Pradesh State Government, West Central Railway has taken an initiative of running 5 Parcel specials within Madhya Pradesh on following routes:
- Bhopal- Gwalior
- Itrasi- Bina
- Bhopal- Khandwa
- Rewa- Anooppur
- Rewa- Singrauli
It may be noted that special Parcel Services of Indian Railways are running with as per the time table.
These timetabled trains are having pre defined scheduled stoppages. Any commodity can be booked in any quantity ‘from’ or ‘to’ any of these stations. All efforts are made to move the commodities in an efficient manner for timely delivery of stock.
Local industries, e-commerce companies, any interested groups, organizations, individuals and prospective loaders can also contact Railway officials at zonal level, contact details of Railway officials at various stations have also been circulated and made available so that anyone can contact to load the parcel. Zonal Railways are reaching out prospective clients through various modes of communication including advertisements.
