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.