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.