The Indian Railways (IR) has earned Rs 7.54 crore by transporting 20,400 tonnes essential items during the 21-day lockdown.
A senior Railway Ministry official said that 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 Covid-19. 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, he said..
"Then railways decided to run time-tabled special parcel trains to ensure uninterrupted and seamless supply chain of goods and essential commodities like dairy products, medical equipments and medicines on several routes during the nationwide lockdown. It has also offered 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.
“Zonal railways are regularly identifying and notifying routes for these parcel special trains. Presently these trains are being operated on sixty-five routes. These routes have been identified as regular connectivity between major cities of the country, viz Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad,” a senior official said.
“Connectivity from state-capitals/important cities to all parts of the state, ensuring connectivity to the North-eastern part of the country, supply of milk and dairy products from surplus regions (Gujarat, AP) to high demand regions and upply of other essential items (agricultural inputs, medicines, medical equipment, etc) from producing regions to other parts of the country,” he added.
The Indian Railways on Tuesday announced that all passenger train services including premium, mail, express, passenger, and suburban trains will remain cancelled till May 3 in continuation of the measures taken in the wake of COVID-19 lockdown. However, in order to ensure the essential supplies in various parts of the country, movement of goods and parcel trains will continue.
The ministry said that no booking of any type of tickets, including e-tickets shall be done till further advice. However, facility of online cancellation will remain functional for ticket bookings.