New Delhi: Transportation of essential items like medical supplies, medical equipment, food, etc in small parcel sizes is going to be very important during the lockdown in the wake of COVID19. In order to fill in this vital need, Indian Railways has made railway parcel vans available for quick mass transportation by E-Commerce entities and other customers including State governments. Railways have decided to run time-tabled Parcel Special trains on select routes, to ensure uninterrupted supply of essential items.
Zonal Railways are regularly identifying and notifying routes for these Parcel Special trains. Presently these trains are being operated on eighty-two (82) routes. These routes have been identified to include:
i) Regular connectivity between major cities of the country, viz Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, & Hyderabad.
ii) Connectivity from state-capitals/important cities to all parts of the state.
iii) Ensuring connectivity to the North-eastern part of the country.
iv) Supply of milk and dairy products from surplus regions (Gujarat, AP) to high demand regions.
v) Supply of other essential items (agricultural inputs, medicines, medical equipment, etc) from producing regions to other parts of the country.
This enhanced running of parcel trains of the Railways is to be seen in the context to ramping up the freight operations in the country by making efforts to make it faster, customized and profitable for all.
Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry recently held a meeting to bring E-commerce and logistics companies closer to Railways.
On 05.05.2020, 66 Parcel Special trains were run out of which 65 were time-tabled trains. 1,936 Tonnes of material was loaded, giving an earning of Rs 57.14 lacs to Railways.
The total number of trains run till 05.05.2020 is 2,067, out of which 1,988 have been time-tabled trains. 54,292 Tonnes of consignments have been loaded, and the earnings have been Rs 19.77 crores.
