Railways offering Parcel Trains services to transport essential commodities

Indian Railways is already transporting essential commodities to different parts of the country through freight trains.

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 food grains, 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.

Staff Manning these operations have been braving numerous challenges in COVID 19 lock downtimes to ensure citizens don't feel a shortage of any essential goods.

Encouraged by the outstanding performance of its employees, Zonal Railways have now started running Timetabled Parcel Trains from 31st March 2020. 

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 – BatindaKankari-Ludhiana

Sankrail – Bengaluru

Any other route as per the demand. 

Indian Railways has also been running other Parcel trains as per the 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 a 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 the 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 to prospective clients through various modes of communication including advertisements.

(With Inputs from PIB)