With one more customer friendly initiative, the Ministry of Railways recently permitted 120 days advance booking of parcel space in various SLRs. This was done with the aim of increasing freight traffic. The total revenue generated on Western Railway (WR) on account of advance booking of VP through E-commerce as on 5th Oct 2020, has been Rs 2.55 crore, which is the highest on Indian Railways.
- According to a press release issued by Shri Sumit Thakur- Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Rly, the advance booking of parcel space can be done in SLRs & Parcel Vans attached to passenger carrying trains and time-tabled Parcel Special trains.
- This scheme will enable major parcel loading parties to plan their logistics in a better manner.
- One of the features of this scheme is that advance booking of space is permitted 120 days in advance.
- This scheme is very customer friendly. In continuation to this, Mumbai Central Division clinched a deal by giving permission to the logistic partner of Amazon India to book indent VPU in Train No 02951.
Views of loading of parcels at Ahmedabad station of Western Rly, through advance booking scheme by logistic partner Amazon India.
- The booking is for 113 days i.e from 13thOctober 2020 to 2nd February 2021.
- Transportation of 2712 tonnes of goods, over a period of 113 days will generate revenue of Rs 2 crore.
- The said booking by Mumbai Central Division is in addition to the advance booking of parcel space done by Ahmedabad Division recently.
- At Ahmedabad Division, logistic Partner of Amazon India booked one VPH by Train No. 02833 for 18 trips & by Train No. 00913 for 19 trips i.e total 37 trips till 16.11.2020, totaling to 851 tonnes.
- One VPH for 3 trips (6/10, 8/10 & 10/10) was booked by Train No. 00913 with 69 Tonnes.
Advance booking of parcel space:
- Shri Thakur stated that, since 23rd March to 6th Oct, 2020, commodities weighing more than 1.43 lakh tonnes have been transported by Western Rly through its 591 parcel special trains, which mainly included agricultural produce, medicines, fish, milk etc.
- The revenue generated through this transportation, has been about Rs 48.45 crore.
- During this period, 100 milk special trains were run by Western Rly, with a load of about 76 thousand tonnes and 100% utilization of the wagons. Similarly, 442 Covid-19 special parcel trains with a load of about 46 thousand tonnes were also run to transport various essential commodities.
- In addition to this, 49 indented rakes carrying almost 22 thousand tonnes were also run with almost 100% utilization.
- During the lockdown period from 22nd March till 6th Oct, 2020, total 17,200rakes of goods trains have been used by WR to supply essential commodities amounting to 36.34 million tonnes.
- 33,840 freight trains have been interchanged with other zonal railways, in which 16,880 trains were handed over and 16,960 trains taken over at different interchange points.
- On 7th Oct, 2020, one Parcel Special train left from Okha to Guwahati.
Freight Traffic:
Western Railway is constantly exploring new avenues to tap the freight traffic. In a latest achievement in this field, WR has achieved the best ever loading in the month of September, 2020. This success in loading was achieved due to continuous monitoring at various levels by Shri Alok Kansal – General Manager of Western Railway, who has personally taken interest to initiate effective steps including formation of Business Development Units & suitable implementation of freight incentives to attract new freight business.
- Western Railway achieved numerous milestones in freight performance in the month of September, 2020. It achieved a loading of 6.94 million tonnes during the month.
- The loading is 6% more than the loading of 6.54 million tonnes during the corresponding month of last year.
- Cumulative loading during the period April to September, 2020 is 34.79 million tonnes.
- Western Railway achieved best ever average loading of 4673 wagons per day in the month of September 2020, surpassing the earlier best was of average 4601 wagons inMarch 2019.
- Best ever loading in a single day too was achieved on 30th September 2020 with 5685 wagons, as against 5429 wagons on 10th September 2020.
- Container loading too was at its best, with 1871 wagons/day in September 2020, as compared to the previous best of 1846 wagons/day in April, 2020.
- Auto rake loading was 39 rakes, Mini rake loading 204 rakes, Two point rake loading of 437 rakes, 2833 crack trains and 1076 rakes of Jumbo rakes.
- All these surpassed their previous best figures to achieve the new milestones.
- WR has also achieved best ever single day loading in Jumbo rakes (47 rakes) on 28thSeptember, 2020.
- Shri Thakur stated that Ahmedabad Division of WR has been doing a commendable job, by achieving the best loading in the month of September, 2020.
- An average of 2341 wagons were loaded per day, surpassing the previous best of 2062 in March, 2019.
- Ahmedabad Division has also achieved many more milestones in freight loading in the month of September, 2020.
- Best ever single day loading of 3039 wagons & total 69 rakes was also achieved in this month.
- Earlier the best was 2848 wagons/62 rakes on 31st March, 2019.
- Container loading too was at the best, with average 1254 wagons per day surpassing the previous best of 1061 average wagons per day in July 2019.
- Automobile loading of 919 wagons (35 rakes) was achieved, which was the best, as against the previous best of 559 wagons (21 rakes) achieved in December 2019.
Source: Western Railway-Press Release | Main Image Credit (representational): MoR
