To contain the spread of COVID19 pandemic in India all passenger train services are cancelled. However, freight and parcel trains are running to maintain this supply chain of essential commodities across the country in addition to graded restoration of special trains.
Central Railway has dispatched 9755 Tonnes of essential commodities during this lockdown period till 5.6.2020, from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus Mumbai, Kalyan, Nagpur, Bhusaval, Solapur, Pune and Nashik to various destinations en-route to Nagpur, Secunderabad, Chennai and Shalimar etc.
Considering the need for the hour and extension of the lockdown period, it has been decided that parcel trains to Shalimar and Chennai extended to run upto 30.6.2020.
Amongst the commodities carried during this lockdown period, Central Railway has carried 3336 Tonnes of Food items/Perishables and 5080 Tonnes of hard parcels to maintain the supply chain.
Carrying and supply of Medicines/ Pharma products amid this pandemic was also a challenging task. Central Railway has carried 1152 Tonnes of Medicines/ Pharma products during this lockdown period. Also 97 Tonnes of Postal bags/RMS and 89 Tonnes of E-commerce products carried by these special parcel trains. Central Railway earned Rs 3.64 crore from the parcels carried during the lockdown period.
Central Railway has introduced online payment for parcel booking on Mumbai Division of Central Railway to facilitate the stake holders the much-needed social distancing and enables easy payment through Net Banking/RTGS/NEFT/IMPS/UPI from office/residence.
