Railways minister Piyush Goyal held a meeting with top courier service agencies to discuss and explore the possibilities of expanding the business of private parcel services through Indian Railways.
During the meeting it was informed that Railways was set to offer reliable, fast, affordable and easy to handle parcel services for logistics or courier agencies.
“In order to quickly work out the best guidelines and ease of doing business, a joint working group is going to be formed consisting of railway officials and representatives of logistics or courier providers. The aim of the meeting was to facilitate robust partnership with railways freight and parcel service,” the minister said in a statement.
Speaking on the occasion the minister said that the solutions needed to be there to ensure a sustainable business development for all.
It may also be noted that total 5,292 parcel trains run by Indian Railways from March 22 till September 2 out of which 5,139 have been time-tabled trains. Total 3,18,453 tonnes of consignments have been loaded in these trains and the earnings have been Rs 116.19 crores.
It is worth mentioning that Indian Railways freight loading for the month of August 2020 with total 94.33 million tonnes of freight loading surpasses last year’s loading for the same month. Total 1,41,049 rakes with 451.38 million tonnes of freight loaded by Indian Railways from March 25 to September 1.
A number of concessions are also being given in Indian Railways to make Railways freight movement very attractive, it said, adding that improvements in freight movements will be institutionalized and incorporated in the upcoming zero based time table.
Meanwhile, Rajiv Chaudhry General Manager of northern railways informed that the refund office has now been conferred with ISO 9001-2015 certification for providing quality management services.
“Refund office is the first office in the commercial organization of Indian Railways to win this prestigious certification which demonstrates the commitment of northern railways towards its customer centric approach,” he said.