Transportation of essential items such as medical supplies, medical equipment, food, etc in small parcel sizes will be very important amid the lockdown 2.0. To fulfil these needs, Indian Railways has made railway parcel vans available for quick mass transportation by E-Commerce entities & other customers which include State governments.
Railways have also decided to run time-tabled Parcel Special trains on select routes, to ensure uninterrupted supply of these essential items in covid-19 lockdown. Adding to it, Zonal Railways are regularly identifying & notifying routes for these Parcel Special trains. Currently, these trains are being operated on 65 routes. These routes will include the following states:
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Regular connectivity between major cities of the country, viz Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
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They will provide connectivity from state-capitals or important cities to all parts of the state.
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They train routes will ensure connectivity to the North-eastern part of the country.
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There will be supply of milk & dairy products from surplus regions i.e. Gujarat, AP to high demand regions.
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Supply of other essential items like agricultural inputs, medicines, medical equipment, etc from producing regions to other parts of the country will be done.
It is to be noted that on 14 April 2020 till 18:00 hrs, 77 trains were run out of which 75 were time-tabled Parcel Special trains. In which, 1835 Tonnes of material was loaded, giving an earning of Rs 63 lacs to Railways in one day.
