WR decides to send essential commodities in time tabled parcel trains

Transportation of essential items like medical supplies, medical equipment, food and others in small parcel sizes is going to be very important during the lockdown period in the wake of COVID19. To mitigate the difficulties to a certain extent, Western Railway has come forward and has decided to open for transportation of essential items such as medical supplies, equipment and food etc. 

As stated
by Alok Kansal- General Manager of Western Rly, interested parties are
requested to contact parcel offices and Divisions to register their indents.
Movement will be by parcel trains point to point as per extent rules.

WR has
finalized the time table for Parcel Express for commodities such as Milk
Product, Edible Oil, Spices, Groceries and Biscuits are as under:

1.
Ahmedabad(KKF) to Sankhrel(SGTY)

2. Bandra
Terminus to New Delhi – Ludhiana

3. Bandra
Terminus to Muzaffarpur- Darbhanga

4. Kkf to
Cuttack

5. Kkf to
Jaipur- Delhi -Chandigarh -Ludhiana 

6.
Karambeli to Chansari -Guwahati

In
addition to these, other probable Parcel Cargo trains are under consideration
as under :-

A)
Indents in pipe line for VP rakes:

1) Dahanu
Rd to Bari Brahaman

2)
Kankaria to  Cuttack

3)
Kankaria to Sankrail

4)
Kankaria to New Jalpaiguri

B) Other
probable routes for VP rake movements for which EOIs can be called –

1) KKF :
Agra/Kanpur/

2)
Lucknow/Varanasi

3) KKF :
Jaipur/Delhi/Chandigarh/Ludhiyana

4)
Karambeli to New Guwahati/Azara/Changsari

5) Dahanu
Road to Dhupguri

Few more
suggested paths can be BDTS to Ludhiana & Ahmedabad to
Darbhanga/Muzaffarpur. These probable paths are under consideration and can be
finalised subjected to local administration permits movement of trucks and
labour handling at originating and terminating points. Talks with concerned
traders are also going on in this regard. 

Discussion
have been done with M/s CTA Logistics, Western carriers, both Ahmedabad, AMUL
products, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF) and Mint
logistics Karambele, Vapi for loading of parcels for Time Tabled parcel
trains. 

Despite
cancellation of passenger services, the goods services hasn’t come to a total
halt and the Railway is ensuring through all possibilities to maintain the
supply of essential commodities across all parts of country by making sure that
the movement of freight trains takes place so that coal reaches the power
houses, food grains are available in the granaries and all essential
commodities are available. Western Railway has also planned to introduce
timetabled parcel trains for quick transportation of essential commodities
across the nation. 

Some
other efforts made by Western Railway during the lockdown period from 22nd to
27th March, 2020 are:

● A total
of 325 rakes have been used to supply essential commodities such as POL
(Petroleum, Oil & Lubricants), salt, cement, coal and containers were
loaded amounting to 0.75 million tones. 

● During
the period 879 freight trains were interchanged with other railways including
440 trains handed over and 439 trains had taken over at different interchange
points.

● Despite
shortage of labour, all efforts are being made to unload important stock.

● During
this period, 6 Millennium Parcel rakes of Parcel Vans/Railway Milk Tankers
(RMTs) have been sent to different parts of the country to cope the demands of
essential items such as, milk powder, liquid milk and other general consumer
goods:

– Ex
Dahanu Road to Bhimsen 

– Ex
Kakariya to Bhimsen near Kanpur

– Ex
Palanpur to Hind Terminal (Palwal) 

– Ex
Karambeli to New Guwahati 

– Ex
Palanpur to Hind Terminal

– Ex
Palanpur to Hind Terminal

According
to a press release issued by WR CPRO Ravinder Bhakar, recently 42 BCN wagons
rake of Goods Train containing rice arrived at Rajkot from Ambala Division. The
unloading of this is being done by labours by maintaining social distancing
which weighs 2658 tons. Other than these developments, Western Railway has also
successfully refunded Rs. 124.62 crores against cancellation of tickets and in
Mumbai Division itself refund of Rs. 58.82 crores has been made. Total loss
over Western Railway up to 27th March, 2020 has been pegged at Rs 149.95 Cr
(inclusive of suburban+ non-suburban). 

It is
noteworthy to mention that suitable monitoring of all activities &
arrangements are being carried out by the Principal Heads of Deptts. along with
their teams to cope with the situation and to ensure smooth implementation of
all plans, under the aegis of GM Alok Kansal.