Indian Railways and India Post have joined hands to introduce joint parcel product scheme across Palakkad Division, including Mangaluru region of Southern Railway, wherein India Post provides the first and last-mile connectivity for parcel consignments.
Board’s Executive Director G.V.L. Satyakumar chaired a meeting for the speedy introduction of the scheme at the Palakkad Division headquarters on Tuesday.
It was attended, among others, by Divisional Railway Manager Trilok Kothari, Kozhikode Circle Post Master General Nirmaladevi, Southern Railway’s Chief Commercial Manager Murugaraj, Palakkad Division’s Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Arun Thomas Kalathikal, and others.
Under the new scheme, which is going to be implemented in a few months, India Post will work with the Railways by collecting parcels from their origin and will entrust them to the Railways for transit.
At the final leg, the delivery parcel will be taken care of by the Postal Department. In addition to that, the department will arrange third-party insurance to the parcel consignment and marketing of the space during the return direction, said a release.
The Railways would modify its handling of parcels system by implementing sealed containers and Pallets to suit the intermodal mix. The airlines-like standard box, forklifts, and moveable platforms were expected to make cargo handling in Railways more efficient.
The Railways would arrange space in luggage-cum-brake vans, 24-tonne high-capacity parcel wagons and 200 tonnes on-demand parcel special trains for transit of parcels depending upon the demand.
Partnership of Indian Railways and India Post for providing logistic support for small farmers, small and medium enterprises was set in the current year Budget under the PM Gati Sakthi programme.
