Hon’ble Minister for Railways Shri Piyush Goyal conducted a review of Railways’ Parcel business which was attended by the Members of Board, and other officials of Railway Board and CRIS.
- During the last few months, Indian Railways has brought in several initiatives to attract more business towards its Parcel services. Some of them include:
- Running of Kisan Rail trains to facilitate movement of farm and agri-produce.
- Grant of discounts on sectors where Parcel Vans and Parcel trains are returning empty.
- Grant of discount on loading of 24 Parcel Vans in a single train.
- Opening of all goods-sheds.
- Private Freight Terminals and Private Sidings for Parcel traffic.
- Starting Parcel train for export traffic to Bangladesh.
- In addition to these initiatives, Indian Railways is also planning to develop dedicated Parcel Terminals to make handling of Parcel consignments easier for the parties, and Sangola (Central Railway), Kacheguda (South Central Railway), Coimbatore (Southern Railway), and Kankariya (Western Railway) have already been identified for development as a pilot project.
- The Hon’ble Minister appreciated the efforts done by the Railways especially regarding running of Kisan Rail trains, and stated that growth of Parcel business is very important as these services are used by small traders and businessmen and making Parcel services more customer friendly will give direct benefit to this segment.
- He emphasised that Railways shall aim for steep growth in Parcel business, and more efforts and innovative ideas are required to bring the desired growth.
- The Hon’ble Minister directed that immediate steps shall be taken to increase the production of LHB Parcel Vans, and to introduce e-Payment and Digital Payment facilities.
- He also directed that adequate steps must be taken to facilitate movement of traffic from North-eastern region and hill states, and also to attract export traffic going towards ports.
- The Hon’ble Minister stated that Parcel Special trains must be run punctually, so that customers gain confidence in using these services.
Recent Initiative:
Indian Railway has recently modified the policy of Parcel van leasing through Premium trains like Shatabdi, Jan-Shatabdi, Duronto Express, Rajdhani Express trains to provide more facilities to transporters.
- As per the new modified policy, leasing of LHB type parcel vans has been permitted by trains like Rajdhani express and Duronto Express trains on end to end basis.
- Leasing of parcel vans has also been permitted by ordinary passenger trains subject to no loss of punctuality of those trains due to loading/ unloading operation.
- Moreover Indian Railway has also decided to amend the Security deposit/Performance Guarantee clause for leasing of the Parcel Cargo Express Trains.
- Now the successful bidder has to deposit the security deposit equivalent to 5% of the contract value within 30 days from the date of issuance of the “Letter Of Acceptance”.
- The Security deposit/Performance Guarantee for leasing out one Brakevan (SLR) has also been modified to 5% of the annual contractual value in place of 10% as required earlier subject to a minimum of Rs. 1 lakh.
- For single Parcel Van (VP) the amount has also been modified to 5% of the annual contractual value in place of 10% as required earlier subject to a minimum of Rs. 4 lakh.
- All the above modifications are expected to immensely help the transporters to book their commodities in a cheaper, faster and hassle free manner to transport their commodities.
Source: PIB-Press Release | Image Credit: MoR
